But is it worth paying for?

After all, there are plenty of free job boards out there that ostensibly offer the same thing. And with workplace burnout on the rise, more people than ever are looking for legit remote work opportunities.

In this article, we’ll share how FlexJobs stacks up against the job board competition and whether it’s worth the cost. 

Side Hustle Nation Approved

FlexJobs: #1 For Remote Jobs

4.7

The best place to find legit work from home jobs. Established in 2007, FlexJobs has 1000s of listings including part-time, full-time, and freelance options in tons of industries.

Check Out the Listings

Is FlexJobs Legit?

Yes, FlexJobs is a legit place to find a work from home job. 

The company was established in 2007, and in 2024 was acquired by BOLD, a well-established career company.

According to FlexJobs, they’ve helped over 11 million job seekers connect with over 57,000 jobs from over 60,000 employers.

How FlexJobs Works

FlexJobs makes it easy to find legit, remote jobs.

Here’s how it works.

Search and Apply

FlexJobs has a user-friendly interface, and more than 50 industry categories. For example, you can find work-from-home jobs in:

• accounting
• admin
• fashion
• graphic design
• project management
• sales
• and tons more

You can search for jobs based on factors like:

• job category
• desired flexibility
• experience level

Each job listing tells you about the company, the required qualifications, and how to apply.

Since the jobs are screened, you can apply with confidence, knowing that there’s a real opportunity behind each listing.

What Kind of Jobs Can You Find on FlexJobs?

On FlexJobs, you can really find a wide range of job types covering just about every industry you can think of.

The common thread among all these jobs is flexibility.

Here’s a closer look at what you might find.

• Remote Jobs
• Freelance Opportunities
• Part-Time Positions
• Temporary or Contract Jobs
• Alternative Schedule Jobs

To cater to different needs, FlexJobs offers various employment types, including part-time, full-time, and freelance.

Part-Time Jobs

These are ideal if you’re looking for less than 40 hours of work per week.

They offer flexibility to balance work with other commitments like studies or family.

Part-time positions often come with flexible hours, making them attractive for those who need flexible schedules.

Full-Time Jobs

Full-time jobs provide stability for those wanting more traditional employment.

They often come with benefits like health insurance, paid time off, and retirement plans.

These roles usually require 40 hours per week but may also offer flexible start and end times.

Freelance Opportunities

Freelance jobs are project-based and allow you to work as an independent contractor.

This type of work is highly flexible, letting you choose when and where you work.

Freelancers might juggle multiple clients or projects at once and have the freedom to build a portfolio of diverse work.

How Do They “Vet” the Remote Jobs?

FlexJobs takes the vetting of job listings seriously, which is a huge plus for anyone tired of running into scams or dead-end leads.

Here’s how they go about making sure the jobs they list are legit:

1. Human Screening

Unlike job boards that rely on automation, FlexJobs has a team of real people who manually review every job listing for the site.

This team checks out the company posting the job and makes sure the company and job are legit.

2. Research on Companies & Jobs

The vetting process includes in-depth research on each company and their job postings.

They check into the company’s history, its online presence, and reviews from employees to ensure it’s a solid, reliable place to work.

3. Ongoing Monitoring

FlexJobs doesn’t just post a job and forget about it. They continuously monitor their job listings and the companies on their site.

If they receive negative feedback about a job or employer, they will decide if that job should stay on the site.

How Much Does FlexJobs Cost?

Unlike other job boards, FlexJobs charges a nominal fee to see details about each posting and apply.

Thankfully, these plans start at just $2.95 for 14-day access.

Here’s the breakdown of their pricing:

• 14-Day Full Access: For $2.95, you can get full access to test out the platform.
• Annual Subscription: At $71.40 for the year, this is the best deal in terms of cost per month ($5.95). 

While you can definitely find a remote job for free, these rates make it a very reasonable investment in your future earning power. 

Set Up Your Profile

Once you’re signed up, you can set up your profile.

This involves:

• uploading your resume
• detailing your skills
• specifying types of job(s) you’re looking for

You can be as detailed as you want with the flexibility you need, such as telecommuting, alternative schedules, or freelance gigs.

Are There Any FlexJobs Discounts Available?

FlexJobs currently offers a 50% discount for military, first responders, and teachers.

Here’s a screenshot from their website:

Is FlexJobs Worth It?

If you’re committed to finding a flexible or remote job and value your time and security, FlexJobs can be worth it.

It’s especially useful if you’re looking for a niche role or you want to avoid the clutter of free job boards. Instead of scouring dozens of different sites, you can find an aggregated, curated selection of jobs in one place. 

Let’s break it down.

Curated, Scam-Free Listings

One of FlexJobs’s biggest perks is that every job listing is hand-screened for legitimacy.

This saves you the hassle and worry of sifting through potentially dubious job offers, which unfortunately is common on free sites.

Variety and Quality of Jobs

FlexJobs covers many areas, from entry-level to executive positions at reputable companies like:

• Walmart
• Pinterest
• Honeywell
• Stubhub
• and more

This is a big plus if you’re aiming for quality over quantity and don’t want to wade through less relevant jobs.

Resources and Support

The membership also gives you access to career coaching and resume reviews at discounted rates.

They also offer free skills tests and webinars that will help you better position yourself in the job market.

These resources are handy, especially if you’re new to the remote or flexible work scene.

Who is FlexJobs the Best Fit For?

FlexJobs has many success stories from users who have found jobs that match their needs.

Here are a few highlights from user testimonials.

1. Career Changers

Many who wanted to switch careers without losing flexibility have found FlexJobs to be a good fit.

For instance, a person moving from a teaching role to a blogger and remote writer found a perfect job through the site. This allows them to maintain a work-life balance while entering a new field.

2. Remote Work Seekers

The popularity of the remote workforce has grown.

According to this research, half of the businesses are home-based, and the number of remote workers is growing.

Folks looking for remote work have shared stories about how FlexJobs helped them find jobs that weren’t promoted on other platforms.

One user, for example, secured a full-time remote position in a competitive field within weeks of subscribing.

This changed their lives by offering flexibility and no more commuting.

3. Freelancers and Part-Time Job Seekers

FlexJobs has also been instrumental for those seeking freelance or part-time positions.

A graphic designer said the site allowed them to build a client base by connecting them with freelance gigs.

4. Parents and Caregivers

Parents and caregivers who need jobs that fit around their schedules often find FlexJobs beneficial.

One parent shared a story about finding a part-time remote job that fit perfectly around their children. 

5. People with Health Issues

Individuals with health issues requiring flexible working arrangements have also benefited from FlexJobs.

One such user with chronic illness found a job that offered the flexibility to work from home. This improved their quality of life and ability to manage health challenges.

Does FlexJobs Have a Guarantee?

Yes, FlexJobs offers a 30-Day Satisfaction Guarantee, which is a great feature if you’re unsure about subscribing.

You can request a full refund if you’re not satisfied with their service within the first 30 days of your subscription.

Other Benefits of FlexJobs

FlexJobs offers several benefits that go beyond just providing job listings. These extra perks can enhance your job search and your overall career development.

Here are some of the notable benefits.

1. Vetted Listings

Every job listed on FlexJobs has been vetted by a real person. This reduces the risk of running into scams, which is a common issue on free job boards.

2. Exclusive Jobs

Some of the job listings on FlexJobs are exclusive, meaning they can’t be found on other job boards. This can give you a leg up in finding unique opportunities that are less accessible to the general public.

3. Member Discounts

FlexJobs partners with over 50 companies to offer discounts on products and services that can be beneficial to job seekers. These include savings on software, career coaching, resume services, and tech gear.

4. Career Coaching and Resume Reviews

For an additional fee, you can access personalized career coaching and resume review services.

These are offered at a discount to FlexJobs members and can provide guidance for remote job markets.

5. Skills Tests

FlexJobs provides more than 170 free skills tests that you can take to gauge your abilities and strengthen your resume.

These tests can help you prove your skills to potential employers and set you apart from other candidates.

6. Resources and Learning

The site offers various education options that can help you navigate remote work. These include tips on how to get started and strategies for advancing your career.

7. Easy Job Application

FlexJobs simplifies the process of applying for jobs. You can store your resumes and cover letters on the platform, making it quick and easy to apply for multiple positions.

There’s also a feature called “Resume Profiles,” which allows you to manage multiple resumes directly on their platform.

This tool is particularly useful if you are applying for jobs that require different skills or experiences.

8. Job Search Checklist and Tracking 

Members have access to job search checklists and tools to help organize and track job applications and follow-ups.

These resources can be incredibly helpful in keeping your job search efficient.

9. Job Alerts

Once you sign up, make sure to set up job alerts that match your skills and desired job criteria.

This feature keeps you in the loop without needing to constantly check the site for new postings.

Learning Center / Courses

FlexJobs’ Learning Center, often referred to as its educational hub, offers resources to help job seekers grow their skills.

Here’s a closer look at what you can expect from their Learning Center:

Webinars and Video Content

FlexJobs hosts webinars that cover a range of topics, including resume writing and interviewing skills.

These sessions often feature career coaches and industry experts and are available for free to members.

Skill-Building Courses

They offer courses for specific job-related skills and how to maximize productivity in remote work settings.

These courses can be particularly useful if you’re moving to a remote role or looking to advance in your current field.

Guides and Articles

The Learning Center includes articles on a variety of topics, including job searching and work-life balance.

These resources are designed to answer common questions and provide actionable advice.

Career Coaching Sessions

Although not free, FlexJobs offers discounted rates on career coaching sessions for its members.

These sessions can be tailored to your needs and include career exploration, job search strategies, and interview prep.

Resume Review

Also offered at a discounted rate for members, resume review services can help you refine your resume. This can help you align with the expectations of employers looking for remote employees.

Downloadable Content

FlexJobs provides checklists, templates, and other resources that can help optimize your job search.

These tools are handy for tracking applications and preparing for interviews.

Most Common FlexJobs Complaints

While FlexJobs is highly rated for its job listings and being a scam-free zone, it does receive some complaints.

Understanding the common criticisms can help you make a more informed decision about whether it’s the right service for you.

Here are some of the most common complaints about FlexJobs.

Subscription Fee

The most frequent complaint is about the subscription fee required to access job listings.

Some users feel uncomfortable paying to find work, especially when there are free job boards available.

But the fee is what allows FlexJobs to vet all postings thoroughly, ensuring they are legitimate and of high quality.

Expectations vs. Reality

Some users expect that paying for a membership will automatically lead to a job. 

It’s important to remember that FlexJobs provides the tools, but landing a job still requires effort and persistence.

Limited Jobs in Certain Industries

While FlexJobs offers a wide range of job types, the site may list fewer opportunities in some niche fields.

This can be frustrating for professionals in those areas who may not find as many relevant job options.

Overqualified Candidates

Some users report frustration with finding too many entry-level positions and not enough jobs that match their experience, especially for more senior roles.

Communication Issues

There have been complaints about customer service and their response times.

FlexJobs Alternatives

If you’re exploring alternatives to FlexJobs for finding work, consider several other platforms.

Each of these alternatives offers a different mix of features, and some may be better suited to specific types of job seekers or industries.

Here’s a rundown of some popular FlexJobs alternatives:

1. We Work Remotely
2. Remote OK
3. LinkedIn
4. Upwork 
5. Freelancer
6. FreeUp

*Want to try out Upwork?  Use these tips to optimize your profile!

Each of these platforms has its strengths and might better suit certain types of job searches or industries. 

Depending on your specific needs, one of these might be a better fit for you than FlexJobs.

And if that’s not enough, here are even more online platform options for side hustles.

FlexJobs: The Bottom Line

The service isn’t free, but it offers great benefits. 

Access to vetted job listings and valuable career resources can make it perfect for those looking for flexible work.

Whether you need a flexible job or want to escape the 9-to-5 grind, FlexJobs provides a reliable platform.

Plus, you can try it out risk-free to see if it aligns with your job search needs.

If you’re on the fence, consider the time and potential frustration saved by having a curated list of scam-free jobs at your fingertips.

In my experience, and based on many user testimonials, if you’re seeking a flexible job, FlexJobs might just be the tool you need to find that perfect match.

Serious About Making Extra Money?

• Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
• Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
• Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.

The award-winning Side Hustle Show is a
Top 10 Entrepreneurship podcast
with over 1,200 5-star ratings!

Listen in your favorite podcast app or directly in your browser.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is FlexJobs?

FlexJobs is a job search website that specializes in remote, flexible, part-time, and freelance job opportunities. It’s known for vetting all job listings to ensure they are legitimate, which helps protect job seekers from scams.

Is FlexJobs suitable for all career levels?

Yes, FlexJobs caters to a wide range of career levels, from entry-level job seekers to executives. Whether you are starting your career, seeking mid-career opportunities, or looking for senior-level positions, you can find jobs that match your level of expertise and career goals.

How does FlexJobs ensure the legitimacy of its job listings?

FlexJobs has a team that manually screens every job listing before it is posted on the site. This includes verifying the company’s legitimacy, researching the company’s background, and ensuring that the job details are clear and genuine

Can I get a refund if I’m not satisfied with FlexJobs?

Yes, FlexJobs has a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. If you’re not happy with your subscription for any reason, you can request a full refund within the first 30 days of your membership.

What types of jobs can I find on FlexJobs?

FlexJobs offers a wide range of job types, including remote jobs, freelance projects, part-time work, and positions with alternative schedules. The jobs cover various industries, from tech and education to healthcare and customer service.

*************
Big thanks to Georgi Todorov for helping research FlexJobs! Georgi is an entrepreneur and content creator with authorship in a broad range of publications, including Entrepreneur and Forbes. He founded Create & Grow to help people create and grow their online business.

Billboards are timeless.

And they remain a successful advertising strategy even with the rise of digital technology.

With that said, you probably never imagined that a solopreneur could rake in $30,000 a month from it (part-time!).

But that’s exactly what Chris Brown from Signs of Good and wantmore.org has done for the past decade.

Chris retired early at the age of 42 and now owns approximately 30 billboards around Bentonville, Arkansas.

Tune in to Ep 608 of The Side Hustle Show to learn:

• how to find billboards for sale
• find places where you could put one
• how to fill that ad space
• how passive it is once you’re up and running

Download Your Free Bonus: 25 Other Unconventional Rental Ideas

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Stumbling Upon a Billboard Side Hustle

Chris, broke after college and struggling with debt, has also just gotten married.

While only earning $8 per hour in an unstable pharmaceutical job that could lay him off anytime, Chris realized something wasn’t working with his finances and started how to build wealth and get out of debt.

After driving past the same rundown billboard every day, he sensed an opportunity.

He looked for the property owner, made an offer, and bought the neglected billboard (plus the land) for $75,000.

Maybe he got lucky because the owner was near bankruptcy, but they both benefited from it anyway.

With a prime location among neighborhoods and schools, he priced each ad face at $600, totaling $2,400 per month.

It became profitable and a true passive income stream as some advertisers stayed for over a decade.

Scaling Up: More Billboards, More Upfront Costs

With the success of the first billboard, Chris had the itch to keep growing his inventory.

Chris’ next project involved the construction of two double-stacked billboard structures on a 3-acre commercial lot he acquired.

Between the land purchase price and construction costs, the total upfront price tag was around $200,000.

However, Chris can generate over $8,000 per month in billboard rental income from the 8 ad faces available.

“That math works pretty well all day long,” Chris said about the sweet potential gains, even after considering the hefty upfront investment needed.

Why Billboards Are a Limited Commodity

While the initial costs of building or acquiring billboards can be steep, billboard owners enjoy a major advantage—there’s an extremely limited supply of these advertising assets available.

This scarcity is thanks to the Highway Beautification Act passed by Congress in 1965. The act severely restricted where new billboards could be installed along federal highway systems.

“About a hundred years ago, billboards were not banned anywhere,” Chris explained. “You could put them up anywhere you wanted, which made them worth not very much at all.”

So when you have a lot of supply, the demand goes down because there’s not much price to be discovered on that.

Of course, that same legislation made it much harder to get approved for new billboard builds nowadays. The permitting process requires clearing multiple regulatory hurdles at the federal, state, county, and municipal levels.

Attracting Advertisers and Maximizing Billboard Revenue

One of the simplest methods is simply plastering your phone number or website across any vacant billboard faces with something like a “Your Ad Here!” call-to-action.

“People will drive by those signs, see them. And by default, they’re going to call or be interested in if they have a business or they want to run it.” Chris said.

Posting temporary banners or vinyl wraps makes it easy for any interested businesses to inquire about the available inventory.

Pricing Models: Terms, Traffic, And What’s Available

For pricing, the typical billboard lease is at least 12 months to offset the upfront costs of printed vinyl wraps and installation. “Some get shorter in the 1 to 6 months just depending on the location,” Chris noted.

The most significant factors influencing monthly rates are the traffic counts and the number of ad faces already active in a particular area.

You can get higher rates on a billboard that’s the only one for miles on a highway stretch, even if the raw traffic counts are lower than in more congested areas. It’s a classic supply-and-demand game.

State highway traffic counts are publicly available data points used to estimate the potential number of impressions. Still, factors like commercial density and competing inventory affect the pricing.

Also, the industry standard is for advertisers to cover the printing and installation costs separately.

Static vs. Digital Billboards: Pros and Cons

There are also key differences between traditional static billboards and newer digital/LED screens.

Static billboards are basically large printed vinyl wraps displaying the same advertisement 24/7 until a lease expires or an advertiser makes a change. They have low ongoing maintenance costs but require reprinting expenses with any new creative ad updates.

Digital billboards rotate a rotation of different advertisements on a recurring cycle, usually every 6-8 seconds.

This allows for more ad inventory per digital face compared to static boards.

However, the upfront and operating costs for digital boards are much higher with large LED screens to power and maintain. Advertisers may be able to get away with shorter rental terms on digital displays instead of annual commitments.

“Personally, I actually like the old-fashioned static science the best. No maintenance; always up unless they get knocked down by wind,” Chris said about choosing between static or digital billboards.

The Equity Upside in Billboard Ownership

While the monthly cash flow from renting billboard advertising is attractive, the real wealth-building potential lies in the equity growth of these income producing assets.

Major national operators like Lamar Advertising and Outfront Media routinely acquire independent billboards at valuations ranging from 7-12 times the annual revenue stream.

These big players are always on the hunt to grow their networks through through mergers/acquisitions. So any time an individual or group decides to sell their billboard asset, they can demand high prices from potential purchasers.

Let’s say you own some billboards that bring in $100k per year after expenses and everything is paid off. That means your billboard business would be worth $700k to $1.2M!

Techs/Tools

You might be surprised, but Chris keeps his operations remarkably low-tech and streamlined.

No fancy proprietary software or complex systems are required.

For the most part, they use basic spreadsheets to track everything—advertiser contacts, contract dates, income statements, and all the fundamentals.

One notable tool Chris uses is LandGlide, which he uses for real estate and scouting possible new spots for billboards. This app shows you “who owns what, where it is, lot of lines, all that kind of stuff.”

It essentially maps out county parcel data and ownership records in an easily accessible mobile interface.

The location-scouting process is key since ideal billboard spots require careful evaluation of neighboring properties, road visibility, and more.

A (Mostly) Passive Day in Chris’ Life

With so much complexity in zoning, permitting, and new construction logistics, you’d think running a portfolio of billboards is a full-time operation.

According to Chris, nowadays, it’s actually relatively passive aside from some basic administrative work.

“It’s been a little boring,” Chris shared.

Most weeks, he’s only spending around 5 hours or so on basic billboard business management tasks. Answering inquiries from potential new advertisers, handling contract renewals, those sorts of things.

Mistakes or Surprises Along the Way

Chris expressed surprise that more people don’t value consistency and long-term investment approaches and instead prefer quick money-making schemes.

Everyone wants the overnight success story, but those are the extreme exceptions, not the rule.

In fact, shortcuts may lead to even further delays in your financial freedom.

Real wealth-building takes time and consistent effort, with small actions causing big difference over a decade.

What’s Next for Chris?

Chris’ goal for this year is to double the number of billboard faces in his portfolio within the next two years and launch a new coaching course called The Billboard Academy.

This will be a chance for him to pull back the curtain and give people a proven blueprint they can follow.

“I want to help others build wealth, get out of the rat race, and achieve that financial freedom.”

So stay tuned for that because it’s going to come in the next couple of months.

Interested students can get a free preview at Chris’s website. There, visitors can download a free guide introducing the passive income potential of billboard ownership.

Chris also hopes his entrepreneurial story can inspire others to take control of their lives and financial futures, just as he did coming from modest beginnings.

His non-profit organization Signs of Good ties together principles of entrepreneurship and giving back.

Chris’ #1 Tip for Side Hustle Nation

“It’s about who you’re becoming, not who you’ve been.”

Episode Links

• Signs of Good
• wantmore.org
• Lamar Advertising
• Outfront Media
• LandGlide
• The Billboard Academy

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Serious About Making Extra Money?

• Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
• Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
• Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.

The award-winning Side Hustle Show is a
Top 10 Entrepreneurship podcast
with over 1,200 5-star ratings!

Listen in your favorite podcast app or directly in your browser.

I compiled this list based on:

• Interviews with dozens of fitness side hustles
• My 15+ years of side hustle experience
• Feedback from the 50,000+ member Side Hustle Nation community

Here are our top picks!

1. Personal Training

The requirements for personal trainers vary from gym to gym. Some require a degree or official certification.

Depending on the gym, you can also make commissions for bringing in new members. Most trainers connect with private clients through their network, NextDoor, or through a marketplace like FindYourTrainer.

Aside from training clients in-person, you can also do it online. For example, April Whitney took her passion for fitness online and created an online strength training program for petite women.

When we spoke, she was earning $1000 a month from it.

2. Sports Coaching

Channel your athletic glory days and help young athletes level up their game.

You can set your own rate and CoachUp private coaches report earning an average of $45 an hour. It doesn’t hurt to check your local school districts to see what coaching positions they have available.

3. Sports Officiating

School sports and recreation leagues always need officials and umpires to help out. If you have experience with a sport and know the rules, this can be a fun and active side hustle.

According to Zippa, referees get paid an average of $25/hr.

4. Teaching Fitness Classes

Gyms offer a variety of fitness classes taught by passionate and trained individuals. 

If you are trained in yoga, Zumba, spinning, or more, check out and see if your local gym is looking for instructors.

5. Build a Health and Fitness Website

Write content on the health and fitness topics you care about and build an audience in your niche. As you build out your library of helpful articles, you’ll pick up more traffic and revenue.

Content sites earn money from affiliate partnerships, ad revenue, and your own products and services.

One common way to start is by creating in-depth product comparison content, like Tami Smith did with her fitness website, FitHealthyMomma. 

Tami is a Certified Personal Trainer and a Nutritionist who took that expertise and applied it online. When we connected, she was earning up to $20k a month.

Want to start a website of your own? Check out my free 6-part video course on how to start your own site.

6. Dog Walking

Best for Dog Lovers

Rover

Make money walking dogs and pet sitting.

Learn More

When homeowners travel, it opens up an opportunity to come by and take care of their animals. Or, they may just need some exercise in the middle of the day!

To set up shop, try Rover.com. Several Side Hustle Nation readers report earning $1000 a month watching other people’s pets.

7. Parking Lot Cleanup

Brian Winch equated his litter pick-up service as “making money going for a walk.”

Now a $650k a year operation, his business started as a side hustle performing the very basic task of picking up litter.

Check out Brian’s interview to learn more about how you can earn $30-$50 an hour picking up trash.

In bottle and can recycling redemption states, you can turn that trash into treasure as well.

8. Create a Walking Tour

Would you love sharing your city with others?

Alexandra Kenin built Urban Hiker SF into a $50k a year side hustle, guiding tour groups around the hills of San Francisco.

With Tours By Locals, you can offer private, unique, and customized tours to travelers in 162 countries.

9. Fitness Niche Newsletter

One of the side hustles I’m most excited about right now is curated email newsletters. Could you source the best articles on your health and fitness topic on a daily or weekly basis?

These are super valuable for readers since you help cut through the clutter in your niche. As your audience grows, you can monetize with ads, affiliate offers, or your own products or services.

Tools like Substack and SendFox make it super easy to get started.

10. Weight Loss Coaching 

Nagina Abdullah turned her weight loss blog, MasalaBody.com, into a side business that consistently made $10k a month.

By day, she worked for a large consulting company. With a busy work schedule, a young family, and limited time to work on her side hustle, Nagina had to be very smart about her marketing and pricing.

After struggling with her weight for all of her adult life, she finally hit on something that worked and dropped 40 pounds!

She started her blog to share recipes and tips, and began offering one-on-one and group coaching programs.

This can be done remotely with Zoom and email, allowing you to help people remotely.

11. Start a YouTube Health and Fitness Channel

Creating content on YouTube is a fast-track side hustle, especially compared with blogging. It’s easier to “rank” videos for your target keywords, and once your channel reaches certain metrics, you can monetize with ads.

Some ideas of content you can create:

• Workout Videos
• Meal Plans
• Equipment Reviews
• Exercise Tutorials

For example, Nisha Vora built her Rainbow Plant Life YouTube channel about vegan cooking to over 1.2M subscribers!

(You can also use YouTube in other creative ways, like to sell a digital product or service.)

12. Host a Fitness Podcast

Podcasting is another unique way to build an income stream around your opinions. It can take a while to build an audience, but it’s a business that can scale really well.

After all, it takes the same effort to produce an episode that 100 people listen to as it does to produce one that 100,000 people listen to.

For example, Shawn Stevenson hosts the popular Model Health Show.

Top podcasts earn up to $100,000 for a single episode — but even smaller shows can thrive with a niche topic. We’ve seen successful side hustle examples from a range of podcast niches, including:

• Parenting
• Dinosaurs (for real!)
• App marketing

This could be a good fit as a fitness side hustle if you love to talk!

13. Write a Book

One of my favorite and most passive side hustles is self-publishing. Passive — after the whole book-writing part, that is :)

My books are on topics like:

• how to work with virtual assistants
• the most important items every website should have
• how to start a side hustle

Over the last decade, my collection of titles have earned me over $80,000.

I can’t call myself a full-time author, but it’s a fun way to get paid to put your ideas and opinions out into the world.

For example, physical therapist Sean Sumner wrote this guide on how to get rid of your back pain.

It’s got over 150 reviews on Amazon, and has led to paid speaking gigs on top of his author royalties.

You can set your own prices and collect a 70% royalty on all Kindle book sales priced between $2.99 and $9.99. (Amazon makes it easy to create a print-on-demand paperback as well.)

14. Freelance Writing

Many companies hire freelance writers to create:

• website content
• sales copy
• marketing newsletters
• product descriptions
• brochures and training material

And yes, even in the age of AI, there’s still a strong demand for real human writers who have experience, voice, and an opinion on what they’re writing about.

Freelance writers command anywhere from $50-500 or more per article, and can connect with clients on platforms like Upwork and Fiverr.

For example, Georgia Austin started her freelance writing business on Fiverr, and got her first orders right away. The more you practice your writing, the faster you’ll get.

Start by deciding which health and fitness topics you are interested in and would love to write about.

You can then see what companies are hiring writers. You can also look at writing job boards or Facebook groups for websites needing health and fitness writers.

15. The Amazon Influencer Program

My latest side hustle is as an Amazon Influencer. This is an offshoot of the Associates program designed for content creators with a following on social media.

Once your Influencer account is approved, you’ll be able to upload short product review videos.

In turn, Amazon displays those on the relevant product pages, and rewards you a commission when someone makes a purchase after watching your video.

I made a little over $100 doing this in my first month, with very little effort!

If you love reviewing workout equipment and accessories, this could be a good fit to start.

16. Get Paid to Lose Weight: $500+

Side Hustle Nation Approved

HealthyWage

4.1

Bet on yourself to hit your weight loss goal, and win an average of $1300 when you achieve it.

Pros:

• Get paid to build healthy habits
• Set your own goals and timeline

Cons:

• You'll lose money if you don't hit your goal
• Prize may not be motivating enough

Calculate Your Prize

Our Review

If you are looking to lose weight yourself, you might want to check out HealthyWage. This cool service lets you put a friendly wager on your weight loss.

If you meet your goal, you can cash in — to the tune of $500 or more! (Here’s our full HealthyWage review.)

If you are looking to get healthy this year, why not make some money at the same time.

Click here to see how much your prize might be.

17. Instacart

Tried and True

Instacart

Get paid to shop for and deliver grocery orders.

Learn More

Shopping for people’s groceries will certainly boost your daily steps with all that walking up and down the aisles. Instacart connects customers with shoppers to deliver fresh groceries to their door.

As an Instacart shopper, you shop and deliver orders as an independent contractor (car required).

Check out my full Instacart shopper review for more details.

18. CashWalk

CashWalk is a popular “get paid to walk” app that uses the pedometer function on your phone to track your steps throughout the day.

Those steps convert into CashWalk coins — up to 100 a day — which can then be redeemed for gift cards to Amazon and other stores. For serious walkers, that translates into $5 every 6-8 weeks.

The only drawback is you have to open the app every day to claim your coins. (That’s how they get you to look at the ads that pay for your gift cards!)

Get 100 coins as a sign-up bonus w/ referral code MR9W5.

Check out our full CashWalk review to learn more.

19. StepBet

A friend of mine reported earning around $150 a year with StepBet, which gamifies your walking goals with group step challenges.

Bet on yourself to meet your walking goals. If you hit your own step goals every week for the entire game, you divide the “pot” with the other winners. That means you win back your own investment plus profit.

If you miss your weekly goal, you’re out of the running.

The Best Fitness Side Hustles: Your Turn

The good news is are lots of fitness-related side hustles available. You may even be able to combine several on this list to help others get in shape or meet your own fitness goals.

The best thing to do is pick one and get started today!

Looking for More Side Hustle Help?

• Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
• Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
• Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.

The award-winning Side Hustle Show is a
Top 10 Entrepreneurship podcast
with over 1,200 5-star ratings!

Listen in your favorite podcast app or directly in your browser.

Do you want to get rich? To build real, lasting wealth that can change your family’s circumstances for generations?

Prepare to be disappointed because there are no get-rich-quick shortcuts or overnight secrets.

Building wealth takes time, discipline, and sustained effort.

But the good news is you can absolutely do it, no matter your current situation or starting point. All it takes is following some proven rules and principles to put you on the path.

I’m talking about 10 fundamental rules to help turn your financial dreams into reality. Joining me for this one is Robert Farrington, founder of the famous personal finance site The College Investor and a longtime guest on The Side Hustle Show.

This conversation is based on his article 10 Rules to Get Rich and Grow Wealth.

Sponsors

• Squarespace — Start building your professional website for free today, and take 10% off your first website or domain!

• Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!

• Hertz – Save at least 20% every time you rent a car with Hertz Business Rewards!

1. You Have To Earn It (Your Money, Your Wealth)

No one’s gonna hand you a fortune on a silver platter. If you want to get rich, you gotta earn it yourself.

This is the whole reason Side Hustle Nation exists—to help you increase that income.

There are two ways to build wealth: make more or spend less.

• Spend less – Finite. You’ll never spend less than $0, but you still to cover some basic costs, no matter how much you cut.
• Make more – Infinite. There’s no limit to how much you can earn, so it makes way more sense to focus on that side of the equation.

Plus, it’s more fun to figure out ways to earn more than trying to cut an extra $100 out of your budget.

An entrepreneurial side hustle isn’t just about trading hours for dollars—it’s about building equity in something you own. That ownership stake can really accelerate your wealth-building journey.

And remember, wealth takes time. Your time frame matters. So if you want to be a millionaire by 35, it will involve more aggressive growth, risk, and developing an ownership mentality in a business venture.

But if you’ve got a longer runway, saving and investing steadily can still get you there, even if it takes longer. Getting started and keeping at it is what matters.

2. You Need To Save Until It Hurts

Your savings rate is the single biggest lever that you can pull to accelerate your path to financial independence.

The more you can sock away, the faster that money can compound and grow.

However, as a (recovering!) frugal person, I’m not entirely sold on the “until it hurts” approach. We’ve never really budgeted but kind of instinctively lived below our means.

There were and are certain purchases we’ve foregone, but I don’t know if I would say it hurts, or maybe we need to flip this to say save until “it feels good now” — by not buying the thing today, you’re helping your future self.

The old adage “mind the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves” has merit, but you also don’t want to sweat every little purchase.

So, what’s the magic number?

There isn’t one. The nationwide average savings rate is around 3.8%, but that’s obviously not the target for everyone. Your ideal savings rate should be aggressive enough to move you towards your goals but sustainable enough that you don’t feel constantly deprived.

Build the habit of holding onto your money, even if it’s just an extra $5 or $10 per paycheck to start.

Robert’s Tip: Find the best deal on purchases, using services like Rakuten or Cashback Monitor, and combining them with credit card rewards and coupons to save money.

3. You Need To Optimize Your Spending

There is no need to give up all fun things just because you want to “optimize your spending.” It is about spending money intentionally on what really matters to you.

Look at the services you’re already paying for and ask if there’s a better, faster, or cheaper alternative out there. We’ve done this with cell phone plans, cable/streaming packages, and more.

But you can also be strategic about spending on things that verifiably improve your happiness and life satisfaction. According to my brother’s site, BecomingBetter.org, there are five key areas to focus on:

1. Helping others – Support causes you care about
2. Eliminating a pain point – Solve those nagging problems that drain your time or energy
3. Experiences – Plan trips and events that create lasting memories
4. Buying back your time – Outsource chores to give yourself more room to focus on what you love
5. Self-development – Invest in yourself with therapy, coaching, or lessons

So spend on what matters! Maybe it’s hiring a cleaning service to buy back time for your side hustle. Or taking tennis lessons as part of your self-improvement journey.

Remember, optimizing your spending is about making conscious choices that align with your values and bring you the most happiness.

4. You Must Put Your Money To Work For You

Get paid over and over again for work you do once.

The classic way is through investing in the stock market and real estate.

But here’s my beef with a lot of the personal finance influencers out there: most people telling you to build wealth through low-cost index funds didn’t build their wealth through low-cost index funds!

A lot built their fortunes through entrepreneurship, business, and other alternative investments.

That’s why I’m intrigued by the concept of Coast FI.

Then you get to that point where your future is set, so you can take your foot off the gas a bit and actually enjoy your money along the way. In other words, they’ll be able to “coast” into retirement.

The key is putting your money to work in productive assets that can earn you income streams, rather than just letting it sit stagnant in a savings account.

5. You Need To Marry Smart

Divorce is devastating, and not just emotionally. It’s a financial wrecking ball. 

Studies show it can wipe out 75% of a family’s wealth—factor in legal fees, splitting assets, increased housing/transportation costs, and the list goes on.

That’s why it’s so important to find a partner who shares your financial values and goals. It’s a team sport.

Robert and his wife combined incomes early on—living off one while investing the other. They didn’t have a prenup (they were young and broke), but it all worked out in the end.

He has a riskier entrepreneurial income while she had a steady job.

As parents, it’s natural to want to give our kids everything, but you run the risk of turning them into helpless, entitled brats.

That’s why I loved Shaq telling his kids “We’re not rich, I’m rich.”

6. You Always Need To Minimize Your Taxes

Taxes are probably your single biggest annual expense. 

No matter where you live, the less the government takes, the more you get to keep and build that wealth!

So let’s talk strategies:

Defer, Defer, Defer with Investments – accounts like a 401(k), 403(b), IRAs, or Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) aren’t just about future savings. Money you contribute goes in before the taxman gets his cut, lowering how much you owe right now. Plus, that money grows tax-deferred, meaning a bigger nest egg down the line.

LLC taxed as an S-corporation – with an S-corp, you pay yourself a “reasonable” salary and avoid paying self-employment taxes on remaining profits. It’s a totally legit hack, but listen to your tax pro on setting it up right.

Get a tax advisor – people mix up tax preparation (filing those returns every year) with tax strategy. Not the same thing! A tax pro can advise you throughout the year. They know the rules, spot deductions, and can help you make smart moves so the following April isn’t a nasty surprise.

Taxes may be unavoidable, but there’s no need to give the government more than their fair share.

7. Insure Yourself and Protect Your Family

This rule isn’t sexy, but it’s absolutely important. It’s about peace of mind.

A little planning today can prevent a financial disaster tomorrow.

Accidents, illnesses, and even a rogue rock bouncing out from under a truck (a lesson I learned the hard way) can wreak havoc on your finances. Disability insurance and car insurance are there to catch you when things go sideways.

Term life insurance can be shockingly affordable (can be as low as $20 a month), offering millions of dollars in coverage for a price tag that might be less than your monthly phone bill.

For Robert’s family, they pay $1,500 per month for a high-deductible plan from Covered California.

So don’t let all your hard work get wiped out by an unexpected event you could have prepared for.

8. You Need To Take Care of Yourself First

Self-care isn’t selfish, it’s essential. You can’t show up as your best self for your business, family, or wealth-building goals if you’re running on fumes physically or mentally.

You know that safety speech they give on airplanes about putting on your own oxygen mask before helping others (i.e., your kids)? The same logic applies to taking care of yourself.

It was a harsh reminder that if you don’t feel well, you simply can’t perform at your best.

If you don’t have your own life in order—financially, emotionally, physically—you might just burden your loved ones. You won’t be able to work and provide. It’s a slippery slope once you start neglecting yourself.

The key is getting right back on track if you slip up like James Clear says: don’t miss two days in a row of your good habits.

Here are ways to take care of yourself through simple habits:

• Prioritizing that morning workout to start my day right
• Hitting my daily step goal through walking habits
• Trying to eat well 80% of the time through meal prep (80% healthy food, 20% indulgence)

Invest in your health and well-being first, then let the other dominoes fall into place.

9. Surround Yourself With People Better Than You

They say you become the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Cliché? Maybe. But there’s undeniable truth to the idea that your environment shapes you.

The people you surround yourself with, whether it’s friends, family, coworkers, or communities you’re part of, they all rub off on you. Their habits, mindsets, and behaviors start shaping your own over time.

So if you want to level up, it’s time to take a hard look at your inner circle.

Find your growth tribe with these methods:

• Events: Conferences (like FinCon), meetups, and masterminds put you face-to-face with potential mentors, partners, and cheerleaders.
• Coaching + Communities: You can get the help you need from a coaching program or paid community. Find programs that match your goals.

You might have to upgrade your peer group along the way. But having people around you who inspire you to aim higher makes such a difference.

10. It’s Okay To Go Slow

I get it, the wealth-building journey can be painstakingly slow at times. You wish you could wave a magic wand and achieve all your financial goals overnight. But that’s just not how it works.

It’s perfectly fine to go at a slower, more sustainable pace. After all, you’ve got a long life ahead of you.

The average millionaire in the U.S. doesn’t hit that milestone until age 62! So don’t get caught up in trying to achieve all your goals by 30 or rushing from one accomplishment to the next.

Learn to enjoy the season you’re in rather than constantly chasing the next milestone. There’s no finish line for happiness or fulfillment.

Focus on getting just 1% better every day through small, consistent habits and actions. That’s how the biggest transformations happen—not through random spurts of motivation, but through never-ending small refinements.

What’s Next for Robert?

It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster with all the recent Google algorithm updates. Robert’s site wasn’t affected, but it also hasn’t seen major growth either.

So where is he finding traction these days?

Facebook groups are absolutely crushing it lately. All the great discussions and engagement seem to be happening in those community spaces now.

Reddit has been another consistent traffic source, though you have to be careful about self-promotion over there. Don’t be a spammer.

Short-form video content is also continuing to pop across TikTok and YouTube Shorts.

If people aren’t finding what they need from regular Google searches anymore, you’ve got to meet them where they’re actually consuming content.

The College Investor site and brand are still going strong at the center of it all. But Robert understands he has to adapt to how people are gathering information in today’s fragmented media landscape.

Episode Links

• The College Investor
• Episode 10: How to Earn $3000 a Month Blogging in Your Spare Time
• Episode 166: $10k a Month Blogging Part-Time
• Episode 482: From 6-Figure Blog to 7-Figure Online Business: Catching Up
• Rakuten
• Bigger Pockets Money
• Lyft
• Robinhood
• FinCon

Serious About Making Extra Money?

• Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
• Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
• Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.

The award-winning Side Hustle Show is a
Top 10 Entrepreneurship podcast
with over 1,200 5-star ratings!

Listen in your favorite podcast app or directly in your browser.

How can one income stream turn into a whole lot more?

Simplify first, diversify second—that’s an idea I have always advocated on the show.

The first step towards diversifying is to have something working. But how do you know it’s time to diversify?

That is exactly what Bjork Ostrom (our previous guest from Ep 46) has done as he (and his wife Lindsay) masterfully “stacked” multiple online businesses that have developed out of their original food blog, Pinch of Yum.

This 10-year-old blog has been a launchpad for Food Blogger Pro (a guide for aspiring food bloggers), Clariti (for optimizing your site’s content), and the holding company, TinyBit.

And this is the framework he uses to decide if an idea is worth pursuing.

Sponsors

• The Next Wave – Your personal Chief AI Officer for implementing AI to drive business growth.

• Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!

• Airbnb – Start an Airbnb business and earn money as an Airbnb Host!

The Shiny Object Test: 3 Questions to Evaluate Your Next Project

1. “Is the adjacent thing making you better at the main thing?”

If you can create another task that complements your initial one, it reduces the chances of losing out on ROI since it’s likely that your current task is making progress.

But don’t simply spread your wings. Focus and go deep on what works rather than constantly seeking new opportunities/diversifying too quickly.

If you find something successful and engaging, continue to pursue it and extract as much value from it as possible before exploring other opportunities.

2. Consider Who You Are as an Individual

Follow your excitement.

What excites you? What are you curious about?

If you don’t have a good understanding of yourself, it’s easy to lose interest and give up on something in the long run.

3. Is It Time to Diversify?

Diversifying income streams is especially important for online businesses that are subject to algorithm updates and policy changes.

You’re basically creating a financial safety net.

Ideally, these new streams should be unrelated to your core business, like Bjork venturing into SEO tech tools like Clariti, as opposed to his food blogging business.

Or like investing in real estate while you’re doing an online business.

Round 2: Donate a Business Idea

“What are the support mechanisms you can build adjacent expertise within that realm that can fast-track you to revenue by having it be service-based or productized service?”

Provide a specialized service/product that can support the needs of the “participants” in an industry.

For example, with more and more people becoming content creators, there’s a need for things like organizing files, understanding analytics, editing videos, and backing up data.

Optimizing things like Google Analytics and data pipelines could make for an interesting agency or SaaS offering to creators who have very specialized needs.

It’s like finding ways to help them do their job better by offering useful services or tools.

What services could you “productize” to sell to these new infopreneurs?

Round 3: The Triple Threat

Bjork promoted these three things:

• Marketing Tactic: manual outreach and actually having real 1-on-1 conversations with potential partners and customers to understand their needs and goals. It’s not scalable but has been effective.
• Tool: Monarch Money – an all-in-one dashboard for tracking finances across your personal and business accounts.
• Book: Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell – Resource for those seeking strategies to delegate tasks and free up their time for strategic work.

I hope you were able to take away some practical tips and strategies to implement in your own side hustle journey.

Keep chipping away at your goals each day, stack on complementary income streams when it makes sense, and don’t be afraid to experiment with new ideas that excite you. Extraordinary things can happen when you show up with discipline over time.

Bjork’s #1 Tip for Side Hustle Nation

“Get a tiny bit better every day.”

Episode Links

• Pinch of Yum
• Food Blogger Pro
• Clariti
• TinyBit
• Ep 46 with Bjork and Lindsay
• Monarch Money
• Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell

Serious About Making Extra Money?

• Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
• Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
• Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.

The award-winning Side Hustle Show is a
Top 10 Entrepreneurship podcast
with over 1,200 5-star ratings!

Listen in your favorite podcast app or directly in your browser.

Starting a service business on the side is one of the fastest ways to build extra income. It’s flexible, low-overhead, and you can probably start with skills you already have.

“I had a lot of drive underneath me,” Abbey Ashley told me, about starting her service business back in 2013. “I was super pregnant and I hated my job so much,”

Abbey started offering her services as a virtual assistant, and connected with her first clients at local networking events in Washington, DC. My the time her maternity leave was up–just a few short months–Abbey had booked enough work to not have to go back to that job she hated.

On top of that, she only had to work 20 hours a week to do it, and could work from home.

There are almost no barriers to entry to starting a freelance service business, and the startup costs are minimal. (All Abbey did was make business cards for networking.)

In fact, it was a service business, a house painting business in my case, that was one of my first entrepreneurial adventures.

Over time, Abbey scaled her virtual assistant business from just herself at $20-30 an hour, to her own little virtual agency, to $75 an hour and up for some specialized work.

Sponsors

• Indeed – Start hiring NOW with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post!

• Airbnb – Start an Airbnb business and earn money as an Airbnb Host!

• Monarch Money — Get an extended 30-day free trial of the top-rated personal finance app!

From Virtual Assistant to Service Business Trainer

Before long, the questions started coming in from friends and peers:

• How can I do what you do?
• How can I work from home and set my own hours?
• How can I do work I enjoy?

In response, she built up a complete training program for would-be virtual assistants. She’s helped thousands of people start their own service businesses and has built a thriving free community of virtual assistants. 

If you want to dive in deeper, check out her free training called Become a Booked Out Virtual Assistant. (That’s an affiliate link; if you buy her full program, I’ll receive a commission.)

What Service Can You Offer?

“I didn’t come in with a ton of skills,” Abbey explained, “but I started to look at what I could do that other business owners need.”

Some of the first tasks she started doing for business owners included:

• Posting on Instagram, Facebook, and other social media platforms
• Writing blog posts and updating website content
• Handling appointment bookings and phone calls

A lot of the tasks business owners need to get off their plates aren’t rocket science. She was able to do almost everything asked of her with the skills she had from her day job, and in the cases she was tasked with something new, the business owner provided training.

“Even if they’ve never hired for that role before, they have a process for it,” Abbey explained. This is my experience as well from hiring freelancers. In most cases, I have a process I’m already executing, but just want to start delegating it.

The 3 Column Method

To begin building a potential menu of services, Abbey recommended this exercise. On a piece of paper with 3 columns, make 3 lists:

1. Skills you enjoy.
2. Skills you don’t enjoy.
3. Skills you don’t know how to do yet but are interested in learning.

I think you’ll come up with a broader spectrum of skills than you might have ever thought you had.

The Freelance Marketplace Method

If you’re struggling for ideas, just head over to a large marketplace for freelancers, such as Upwork or Fiverr. Look at the categories and sub-categories on these sites and the skills freelancers are offering. I’m sure you’ll several skills that you also have.

One interesting point–and counter to the usual advice to “niche down”–was that Abbey recommended starting out as a general virtual assistant. In the early days of your business, let the clients steer the role you play, and over time you’ll learn the tasks you really love and are efficient at.

How to Get Your First Customers in Your Service Business

First of all, Abbey recommended joining her Virtual Savvies Facebook Group. At press time, there are more than 30k members, with job opportunities getting shared daily. In addition, it’s always helpful to have a support network of other virtual assistants to talk to.

Start with Your Network

Abbey recommended starting conversations about your new service business with friends and family too. Even if they’re not in the position to hire you, there’s always the chance they know someone looking for help. Word-of-mouth is a powerful marketing tool.

Don’t limit yourself to just the online space. As you go about your day, you might encounter other people locally who could use your help. It always just starts with being curious, listening, and trying to find the potential areas in their business you might be able to serve.

Abbey also said to put yourself out there and let business owners know what you’re doing. “Most of us know at least one small business owner, talk to them first,” Abbey said. In most cases, they’ll be excited to see someone else jumping into entrepreneurship!

Local Meetups and Networking Events

Check your local Meetup groups too. There are always networking events for entrepreneurs and other meetups you can attend to introduce yourself to other entrepreneurs and business owners.

Abbey said you can just introduce yourself and explain what you do, and they’ll think about you if they need a virtual assistant. “A lot of times it does sell itself,” Abbey said.

High-End Client Targeting

Abbey shared something she calls “High-End Client Targeting.” This is the “give-first” technique she used to land her biggest client and helps her students land well-paying clients as well.

If you know of someone you would love to work for, there are some steps you can take to get noticed and possibly get hired. Start by paying attention to them if you’re not already. Read their blog, listen to their podcasts, and so on. There is a good chance they will bring up holes and pain points in their business.

For example, they might mention they have never had success using Pinterest. If you have experience with Pinterest, this is the perfect opportunity to offer them a service to solve their pain point.

Create some Pinterest-optimized images for their recent content, and send those free of charge over email. It’s a great way to break through the clutter and give value first. You can mention that you offer Pinterest management services if they’re interested.

Even if it doesn’t turn into a job with that customer, it usually turns into a relationship. Making a positive first impression like that is a good way to become top-of-mind should they know someone else who could use your services.

Pricing Your Service

When Abbey landed her first client, she had a mix of emotions. She was elated to have a client, but also knew she had to work out some details–like contracts and payments.

She came up with her own pricing by looking up what other virtual assistants were charging, and how they were pricing their packages. She landed on a rate of $30 per hour. For general virtual assistants, she advised not starting below $20 an hour.

Abbey started off selling “bundles of hours” as this was what other VAs were doing. She sold packages of 10, 20, or 40 hours, and drew up a contract with payment details and terms.

For new service entrepreneurs, she recommended working backward from your goal income, and keeping in mind how many hours you have available to work and setting aside money for taxes.

As far as a legal entity, Abbey worked as a sole proprietor when she started working as a VA, and her location just required a $30 home business occupation permit. Of course, rules and regulations vary country by country, state by state, and city by city.

How to Expand and and Scale Up Your Service Business

Working as a virtual assistant or any service business is still trading time for money, which turns some entrepreneurs off. “I already do that at work!” Abbey countered with the fact that, “Yes, it’s still trading time for money, but you get to do it from the comfort of your home without the 2-hour commute.”

There are several ways to grow a service business, including:

• Raising your rates
• Creating “productized” packages
• Creating a digital product DIY guide for clients who don’t want (or can’t afford) to work with you one-on-one.
• Hiring subcontractors to do the work.

“Most of my students end up forming a mini-agency,” Abbey explained. This was the model she pursued in her virtual assistant business, and eventually had a team of 4 subcontractors. As the project manager and team leader, you’re responsible for booking work, client communications, and managing the entire process.

Next Steps

Abbey’s #1 tip was to give yourself some grace. We’re bound to make some mistakes and face some challenges along the way; that’s life! Give yourself some grace, pivot to the next thing, and keep going.

If you want to dive in deeper, check out her free training called Become a Booked Out Virtual Assistant. (That’s an affiliate link; if you buy her full program, I’ll receive a commission.)

Episode Links

• Virtual Savvies Facebook Group
• Become a Booked Out Virtual Assistant
• Meetup

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Pin it for later:

Serious About Making Extra Money?

• Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
• Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
• Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.

The award-winning Side Hustle Show is a
Top 10 Entrepreneurship podcast
with over 1,200 5-star ratings!

Listen in your favorite podcast app or directly in your browser.

The good news is there are lots of odd job apps that can help you earn money on a flexible schedule.

To come up with this list, I:

• gathered feedback from the 50,000-member Side Hustle Nation community
• cross-referenced the best-rated odd job apps in both the Apple and Google Play app stores
• considered my own 15+ years of side hustle experience

With that in mind, here are our top picks.

Best for Dog Lovers	High Earning Power	Best for Muscles
Rover	TaskRabbit	Dolly
4.5	4.5	4.3
Make money walking dogs and pet sitting. (Up to $60/night)	Get paid to assemble furniture, run errands, do handyman work, or even wait in line. (Up to $100/hr)	Get paid to help people move. ($35-50/hr)
Learn More	Learn More	Learn More

Best for Dog Lovers

Rover

4.5

Make money walking dogs and pet sitting. (Up to $60/night)

Learn More

High Earning Power

TaskRabbit

4.5

Get paid to assemble furniture, run errands, do handyman work, or even wait in line. (Up to $100/hr)

Learn More

Best for Muscles

Dolly

4.3

Get paid to help people move. ($35-50/hr)

Learn More

Best Odd Job Apps for Local Jobs

1. Rover

When homeowners travel, it opens up an opportunity to come by and take care of their animals.

To set up shop, try Rover.com. Several Side Hustle Nation readers report earning $1000 a month watching other people’s pets!

This gig app is perfect for pet lovers who don’t mind some extra furry friends around.

2. TaskRabbit

TaskRabbit is the original odd jobs app. You can create a profile specializing in:

• running local errands
• assembling furniture
• local temp help
• event staffing
• cooking
• photography
• TV mounting
• virtual support jobs
• and lots more

Rates vary widely based on what service you’re providing, but I’ve seen tasks anywhere from $15 an hour all the way up to $100+ for specialized skills.

3. Thumbtack

Thumbtack has a range of services, including categories like:

• home repair
• wedding photography
• lessons
• and lots more

As a service provider, you can set your rates, but you do have to pay Thumbtack for every lead you get through the platform.

Respond to requests quickly, price competitively, and gather reviews to book jobs and boost your profile.

4. Angi Services

Earn up to $22 an hour as a cleaner or up to $45 as a handyperson through the Angi Services (formerly Handy) app.

According to their website, top pros are taking home more than $1000 a week. If you’re skilled in painting, plumbing, electrical work, or cleaning with a friendly service attitude, this is an interesting side hustle job app.

5. TaskEasy

TaskEasy is an app for lawn-care service providers.

You can sign up as a contractor for mowing, trimming, weeding, and more. The app takes care of all scheduling and payments — you pick your schedule and they line up the jobs.

6. YourMechanic

If you’re comfortable fixing cars, check out YourMechanic.com, which helps match you with customers in need of car repairs — and pays up to $70 an hour.

For example, Matt Bochnak of Chicago started fixing motorcycles in his garage to earn extra money. It was a good gig, but it became a great one when he started filming his repairs and putting the videos online.

Eventually, Matt turned this classic blue collar business idea into a $20k a month online business.

Apps for Pick Up and Delivery Jobs

Tried and True	Up and Coming	Highest Earning Power
Instacart	HopSkipDrive	Sharetown
4.1	4.0	4.0
Get paid to shop for and deliver grocery orders.	Help get kids safely to and from school, and earn $20-30 per hour.	Sharetown reps make money by reselling gently-used furniture and bed-in-a-box mattresses. Top reps earn $4000+ per month.
Learn More	Learn More	Apply Now

Tried and True

Instacart

4.1

Get paid to shop for and deliver grocery orders.

Learn More

Up and Coming

HopSkipDrive

4.0

Help get kids safely to and from school, and earn $20-30 per hour.

Learn More

Highest Earning Power

Sharetown

4.0

Sharetown reps make money by reselling gently-used furniture and bed-in-a-box mattresses. Top reps earn $4000+ per month.

Apply Now

7. Sharetown

Not many people know about Sharetown, but I’ve connected with side hustlers earning $3,000+ a month with this app.

Sharetown matches you up with gently-used mattress and furniture returns from direct-to-consumer brands.

Since the items aren’t new, the companies can’t really take them back and resell them — but you can. The Sharetown reps I’ve connected with report earning $150-250 per item.

And the cool part is the inventory doesn’t cost you anything until it sells.

But you can’t just download the app and get started. You have to apply first to make sure the company needs additional reps in your area.

Check out our full Sharetown review to learn more about how it works.

Highest Earning Power

Become a Sharetown Rep

4.0

Sharetown reps make money by reselling gently-used furniture and bed-in-a-box mattresses. Top reps earn $4000+ per month.

Pros:

• Low startup costs
• Great earning power
• No hunting for inventory

Cons:

• Requires a truck or SUV
• Bulky items to store
• Not available in all areas

Apply Now

Our Sharetown Review

8. Delivery and Rideshare Apps

You’ve heard of “driving for dollars” with services like Uber and Lyft, and it doesn’t get much simpler than this. One Lyft driver of mine on a recent trip put it this way: “When I want to make money, I turn on the app.”

In fact, these “gig economy” apps have helped create a multi-hundred billion dollar a year industry. Here are some options to get your piece of the pie:

• Instacart – Enjoy weekly payouts and a flexible schedule. Check out our full Instacart Shopper review here, with insights from a side hustler earning an extra $450-500 a week.
• DoorDash – Earn up to $25 an hour as a food delivery driver for. For more, here’s our full DoorDash review.
• Uber Eats – Make local takeout deliveries in your town with and earn up $25 an hour doing so.
• Shipt – Drivers can earn up to $22 an hour shopping for and delivering fresh food and household essentials.

If you choose any of these driving-related side hustles, it might make sense to tack on an app like Hurdlr to automatically track your mileage, expenses, income streams, and tax deductions in real-time. On average, Hurdlr helps users find $5600 in deductions!

9. Dolly

If you have a truck or van — and a strong back — you can earn $50 an hour with Dolly’s peer-to-peer moving platform. (Or around $35 an hour if you’re not providing a vehicle.)

10. Bellhop

Bellhop is similar to Dolly, but sets earning expectations lower at $21 per hour. (Not including tips and bonuses.)

Still, nothing’s stopping you from joining both services to fill out your schedule to earn more money.

And like Dolly, you find and accept jobs that work for your time schedule. In other words: it’s an easy side hustle if you don’t mind a bit of heavy lifting.

Odd Job Apps for Local Shift Work

11. JobGet

JobGet is a well-rated user-friendly app to find jobs in:

• retail
• hospitality
• healthcare
• and more

After you upload your resume, you can apply to jobs in one click, chat with employers, and find nearby work.

Depending on the job, pay rates range from $15-40 an hour.

12. Upshift

Upshift is a staffing platform that partners with area businesses to provide employees to cover shift work.

Upshift is only available right now in 25 metro locations. 

Upshift provides shift workers in industries such as food service and events, fulfillment and distribution, hotels, education, and more.

To become a shifter, you fill out an application. Once approved you will be an employee of Upshift, and have benefits available.

To find out more, check out our Upshift Review.

13. Wonolo 

Wonolo is a popular temp work platform that connects you with immediate hourly or same-day gig jobs. Wonolo connects you with jobs in retail, logistics, manufacturing, and more. You can choose when you want to work, and how much you want to work.

With several different industries available, you can choose gigs you’re familiar with or try something new.

At press time, Wonolo was rated 4.4-stars in the Google Play store, with over 1M downloads.

14. Jobble

Jobble is another app that allows you to find local gig work. You can use it to find open shifts, part-time, or even full-time work. You can choose the hours and days you want to work, and there is no long-term commitment if you want to try something new.

Once the hiring manager confirms your hours, you get paid immediately to your bank account. If you need money quickly, this could be a great option.

15. Instawork

Instawork is a gig app with jobs in hospitality, warehousing, and more. You pick your own schedule and have the option to pick up last-minute shifts.

They also offer several benefits including:

• instant payment after eligible shifts
• cash bonuses
• 5% back on gas
• and more

Instawork says their jobs average $20/hr.

16. Indeed Flex

Indeed Flex allows “flexers” to find short or long-term temporary work.

Powered by Indeed, “the #1 job site in the world,” Indeed Flex allows you to pick up shifts when and where you want.

Indeed Flex pays out weekly, which means you’ll see your money fairly quickly.

There is also a same-day pay option, but that requires more hoops to jump through. Indeed Flex also has benefit options including:

• medical
• dental
• short-term disability

Gig Economy Apps

17. Steady

Steady is a cool app and website that consolidates all sorts of “gig economy” opportunities. For example, you can find work from home gigs, flexible “anytime” options, and even regular full- and part-time jobs.

Browsing through the listings, I found the usual array of delivery and rideshare gigs, but was pleasantly surprised by some of the other offerings. There were a number of local opportunities I’d never heard of in:

• brand ambassadorship
• political advocacy
• mystery shopping
• transcription
• and more

Steady acts as a portal to all these gigs and gives you a convenient central location to browse. After you create your account, you’ll be able to see everything available online and in your local area.

18. AppJobs 

AppJobs is similar to Steady, in that it aggregates a bunch of side hustle jobs in one place.

Filter by city and then by the type of work you’re interested in (delivery, freelance, cleaning, handyman, etc.) to see opportunities. Many opportunities are offered through third-party sites.

19. Field Agent

Field Agent presents a list of tasks you can do based on your location.

Most of these gigs involve evaluating product displays or checking on inventory. They typically pay $3-10 apiece, depending on complexity and the time involved.

No purchase is necessary, unless specified in the task, in which case Field Agent will reimburse you. This is a great gig app for when you are already out and about doing other things.

For more, check out my full Field Agent review.

20. WeGoLook

Earn $18 to $200 to go look at stuff like eBay purchases, cars, rental properties, or even vacant lots with WeGoLook. Take pictures, verify information, and report back what you find. Some gigs require professional licenses, but there are options with no requirements as well. 

21. Craigslist Gigs

There’s a section in the lower right side of Craigslist where companies and individuals post jobs and gigs.

Best Online Odd Jobs Apps

22. Fiverr

For me, Fiverr has been a fun and eye-opening side hustle experiment. Since I started on the site, I’ve earned over $13,000, met some awesome people, and found an interesting “Buy Buttons” platform.

How it works is you come up with a base “gig” — and then add relevant upsells or packages to increase your order value. One of my most popular podcast episodes was with a Fiverr seller who used the platform to launch a 6-figure freelancing business.

23. FlexJobs

FlexJobs is better for finding a legit, longer-term, work from home job, but is still worth mentioning here.

Side Hustle Nation Approved

FlexJobs: #1 For Remote Jobs

4.7

The best place to find legit work from home jobs. Established in 2007, FlexJobs has 1000s of listings including part-time, full-time, and freelance options in tons of industries.

Check Out the Listings

Our Review

The site has more than 50 career categories and thousands of pre-vetted listings. 

There is a nominal monthly fee to access their listings, but you’ll earn that back (and then some!) with one job.

Check out our full FlexJobs review to learn more.

24. Remotasks

Remotasks doesn’t have a mobile app, but is a unique way to earn money from home in your spare time. How it works is you provide feedback on AI responses, based on how well they answered the prompt.

The onboarding process was a bit tedious and confusing, but I earned $15 an hour after I made it through.

Check out our full Remotasks review to learn more.

Babysitting, Child Care, and Caregiving Apps

25. Care

Care is another good way to earn extra income — especially during school breaks or over the summer —by providing babysitting, child care, or even elder care.

The work hours are flexible and with the nationwide average rates are in the range of $12-15 an hour.

If you love kids and you and have time to spare, babysitting would be a pretty easy side gig to consider.

26. Sittercity

Sittercity is a huge marketplace for child care, with parents posting jobs every 2 minutes and rates usually in the $15-25/hour range.

A teacher friend of mine actually ended up connecting with a celebrity client in New York through Sittercity. You never know!

27. UrbanSitter

If you love kids, UrbanSitter could be the perfect side hustle job. Set your own babysitting rates, availability, and geographic area you cover. Because UrbanSitter charges parents a monthly membership fee to access the directory, you keep 100% of your earnings.

28. Helpr

An interesting new family support app, Helpr aims to connect parents and sitters — but employers sometimes subsidize the care. According to the site, the average rate is $27/hour.

Helpr allows you to set your own hours and they pay within 4 days of completed bookings.

They have an extensive resources library to help you be successful with their platform.

Odd Job Apps Alternatives

Paid Market Research

Best Overall	UserInterviews.com 4.1 Earn $50-150/hr, with thousands of new studies added each month.	Join for Free
Best for Industry Pros	Respondent 4.1 Earn an average of $75 per project, and get notified of upcoming studies you may qualify for.	Join for Free
Best for Medical Research	Rare Patient Voice 4.5 Patients and caregivers can earn $120/hour while helping advance medical research.	Join for Free

Best Overall

UserInterviews.com

4.1

Earn $50-150/hr, with thousands of new studies added each month.

Join for Free

Best for Industry Pros

Respondent

4.1

Earn an average of $75 per project, and get notified of upcoming studies you may qualify for.

Join for Free

Best for Medical Research

Rare Patient Voice

4.5

Patients and caregivers can earn $120/hour while helping advance medical research.

Join for Free

There are a few online research companies everyone should sign up for.

User Interviews is a great resource for connecting with remote consumer research studies. I’ve made $105 in about an hour and a half so far — here’s my full User Interviews review.

Respondent is one of the best paying online survey companies I’ve found. Usually the surveys are one-on-one interviews either in-person or over the phone / video chat, and they pay an average of $140 an hour.

Rare Patient Voice pays patients and caregivers $120 an hour to assist with medical research. You can browse a full list of available studies on their site—nearly all of which are phone or webcam interviews.

If you suffer from any sort of medical condition (even if it’s not super rare), this one is worth a look.

The site is open to residents of United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.

Test Mobile Games

KashKick is a newer app that pays you to answer surveys, test new games (up to $150 each!), and redeem money-saving offers.

With the slogan “get paid to have fun,” KashKick is rated 4.2-stars in the Google Play store.

Best for Testing New Games

KashKick

Get paid to test new games, complete offers, and answer short surveys.

Sign Up Free

Donate Plasma

As long as needles don’t bother you, you can earn $20-60 per plasma donation.

Odd Job Apps: Your Turn

Finding odd jobs can be a great side hustle to start.

Many odd jobs are flexible and allow you to complete the work when it works best for you.

With lots of apps to choose from, start with the ones that match up to your skills and interests. Signing up on multiple apps will allow you to broaden your reach.

Looking for More Side Hustle Help?

• Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
• Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
• Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.

The award-winning Side Hustle Show is a
Top 10 Entrepreneurship podcast
with over 1,200 5-star ratings!

Listen in your favorite podcast app or directly in your browser.

Big data is big business, generating an estimated $270 billion by 2026.

And as individuals, we create a lot of data every day. Every Internet search we make, every location we visit, every tap of our phone, even the words we speak — it all creates data. (An estimated 146MB per person per day!)

For decades, we’ve freely given that data away to big companies like Google and Facebook. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value.

In fact, several reputable companies will now pay you for your data. In this post, I’ll outline my top picks to make money from the data you generate every day.

Ready? Let’s do it!

Best for Passive Earning	Set it and Forget It	Highest Cash Back Potential
Nielsen Computer and Mobile Panel	Caden (iOS)	Ibotta
4.0	4.0	4.8
Earn up to $60 in free Amazon gift cards every year.	Earn around $10 a month sharing data with your permission.	This long-running cash back app rewards you for buying the stuff you normally would. Use our referral link below to get a $5 bonus when you scan your first receipt.
Join for Free	Join Free	Download Now

Best for Passive Earning

Nielsen Computer and Mobile Panel

4.0

Earn up to $60 in free Amazon gift cards every year.

Join for Free

Set it and Forget It

Caden (iOS)

4.0

Earn around $10 a month sharing data with your permission.

Join Free

Highest Cash Back Potential

Ibotta

4.8

This long-running cash back app rewards you for buying the stuff you normally would. Use our referral link below to get a $5 bonus when you scan your first receipt.

Download Now

1. Nielsen Computer & Mobile Panel

Nielsen is one of several companies that will pay you just to install their apps and run in the background on your devices.

These are low-maintenance, low-overhead ways to pretty much get paid do nothing.

You can install the app on your computer, smartphone, and tablet. As Nielsen tracks your Internet usage, you earn points — worth up to $60 per year. Users can redeem points for gift cards or cash out via PayPal.

(Yes, this is the same Nielsen that’s been reporting TV ratings data for decades.)

According to one Google Play reviewer: “It’s simple to use and lightning fast to cash out. Just let it sit there on your device and when you have enough points, redeem them.”

The most common complaint is that it can slow down your device.

2. Take Online Surveys

These aren’t quite as “set it and forget it” as the options above, but are an easy way to get paid to share your opinion.

(Many Side Hustle Nation members report using these apps from their couch in the evenings.)

Here are some of our top picks.

3. Caden

Caden is another newer app, and is earning me over $10 a month on autopilot

The app turns your phone into an income generating asset, by sharing data with your permission.

At press time, it was iOS only. Check out our full Caden app review to learn more.

4. Pogo

The free Pogo app is one of my latest finds. By sharing your location and credit card transaction data, Pogo gives you points that you can cash out to PayPal or Venmo.

Just enable location tracking and link your bank account credentials when you sign up.

You’ll start to receive location-based rewards as you drive around town, and other points for your credit card spending. Based on my results so far, I expect Pogo to be worth around $5-20 a year. 

Check out my full Pogo app review to learn more.

5. Fetch Rewards

Many cash back apps will basically give you free money just for tracking the spending you’re already doing.

For example, Fetch Rewards is a favorite of mine. All you have to do is snap a picture of your grocery receipts after your shopping trips.

Easiest to Use

Fetch

4.8

Get cash back for every receipt, plus bonus payouts for buying specific products and brands. Use referral code FETCH300 to get 300 free bonus points added to your account.

Pros:

• Super easy to use
• Tons of cash out options
• Earn more from popular brands

Cons:

• $0.02 minimum receipt value is on the lower end
• Some rewards have high minimums

Download Now

Why are they paying for pictures of your receipts? I’m not really sure, but I also don’t care if strangers know what food we bought.

Eventually you’ll earn enough points to cash out for a gift card. In our house, it probably adds up to around $10-20 a year, but I’m sure other shoppers earn much more.

I usually opt for the Amazon gift card options, but Starbucks, Apple, Target, Home Depot, and lots more are available as well.

6. Ibotta

Ibotta is one of the longest-running cash back apps, and one I still every week to check for extra cash back on our grocery purchases.

The drawback is you still have to scroll through each store’s listing and choose the products you bought. Then, you snap a picture of your receipt and watch the cash back hit your account.

According to Ibotta, people who use the app every month earn over $130 a year!

(You can cash out via gift cards or PayPal.)

7. MobileXpression

Similarly, the MobileXpression app records your smartphone usage habits. The money making app has over 1M downloads, and has paid out over $5 million.

In exchange for sharing this anonymized data, you’ll earn weekly credits redeemable for gift cards to popular retailers.

They’ll even give you a free $5 Amazon gift card after your first week (if you’re in the US).

The company behind MobileXpression, Comscore, is publicly traded and has been in business since 1999.

8. NCP Mobile

Earn gift cards when you use the National Consumer Panel Mobile app to snap pictures of the barcodes of the products you buy. This is a great one to stack with Fetch and Ibotta.

9. Marble

Marble is the first and only “rewards program” for insurance.

Marble lets you sync your home, renters, auto, and pet policies in one dashboard, and then pays you up to 5% cash back on your premiums.

They’ll even give you a $5 bonus when you add your first policy.

Since you have to have many of these coverages already, getting paid for them is like getting free money.

10. Honeygain

I’ve seen a lot of buzz lately around a new app called Honeygain.

According to the site, you can earn up to $50 a month when you share “your unused net traffic with data scientists.”

Just install the app (available on Windows, MacOS, and Android), connect it to the Internet, and earn rewards passively.

On average, it takes users 48 days to reach $20.

Get a $5 bonus to start.

Before you get started though, make sure you’re truly on an unlimited plan—it sounds like this could chew through a lot of bandwidth in a hurry!

11. SavvyConnect

Using “safe, cutting-edge technology to collect data as you surf the web,” the SavvyConnect VIP program pays you up to $5 a month per device.

That means when you connect your smartphone, tablet, and desktop/laptop — and remain active in the SavvyConnect community — you can earn $15 a month or $180 a year.

12. CoinOut

CoinOut won’t replace your day job, but could pay you up to $36 a year for uploading your shopping receipts.

It’s easy to use and you can cash out for an Amazon gift card as soon as you earn your first $3 worth of coins.

Check out our full CoinOut review to learn more.

13. Dosh

With Dosh, there are no codes to scan or receipts to upload. Instead, you’ll just earn automatic cash back at lots of nearby locations after you link your credit card.

It’s pretty cool to get bonus cash back at places like Shake Shack — we were gonna eat there anyway!

But where Dosh is perhaps most interesting is in booking hotels. When you book through the app, you can get up to 40% cash back at 600,000 hotels!

14. Permission Research (Desktop)

Permission Research will send you a $10 Visa gift card after you install their software and keep it on your Windows computer for a week. After that, you’ll earn $10 for every month you keep it installed ($120/year).

Safety in numbers: More than 2 million users share their computer usage and browsing habits through this service.

15. Miles

The new Miles app gives you “frequent flyer miles” for all the travel you do, whether walking, biking, driving, riding, or flying.

By letting the app track your location data, you’ll earn free points that can be redeemed for gift cards. This one may be best for heavy commuters though — it takes 5,000 miles to earn a $3 Amazon gift card.

For most users, that will amount to $6-20 a year.

At press time, you can get 4,000 bonus miles when you join through my referral link. To learn more, check out our full Miles app review.

16. Evidation

The Evidation app partners up with health companies for market studies. You get to be a part of cutting edge medical research, and get paid for it.

You can earn money by:

• tracking steps
• sleeping
• logging meals
• opting into challenges
• completing surveys
• tweeting
• and more

Evidation connects with apps like Apple Health, Samsung Health, Fitbit, Strava, MyFitnessPal, and Garmin.

Earn $10 for every 10,000 points, and cash out through PayPal or straight to your bank account.

17. Capital One Shopping

The free Capital One Shopping browser extension does a few things for you:

• Alerts you of better prices while you’re shopping at Amazon
• Automatically applies coupons when you’re checking out online
• Gives you rewards you can cash out for gift cards as you shop

Where the data sharing element comes in is with the Price Protection feature. To opt in for that, you have to link your email account. Then, Capital One Shopping “reads” your e-commerce receipt emails, and notifies you if the price drops on anything you bought.

If the purchase is eligible for any sort of price protection guarantee from that store, Capital One will help you claim it.

I’ve had it installed for a while, and have saved over $300 so far as a result.

(You don’t need to bank with Capital One to use it, either.)

What’s the Best Way to Get Paid for Your Data?

While there are lots of ways to monetize your data, none of them will make you rich. Even if you did everything on this page, it may only realistically add up to around $500 a year.

Which option (or options) is best for you depends on your comfort level in sharing personal data online, and whether or not the rewards are worth it for you.

I use many of these apps myself, and see it as a fun and relatively non-intrusive way to make some extra money.

Any good ones I missed? Let me know in the comments below!

Alternatives to Making Money from Your Data

As far as side hustles go, getting paid for your data is only one option. Here are some alternatives to consider that may require a bit more work to get started, but have better earning power.

Market Research Studies

You can find several companies that facilitate online and in-person consumer research studies and focus groups.

My personal favorites are:

• User Interviews, where payouts typically range from $50-200 an hour. Here’s our full User Interviews review.
• Respondent, where the average pay rate is $140 an hour. Here’s our full Respondent review.
• Rare Patient Voice, a platform for paid medical research.

Credit Card Rewards

You’ve got to promise to use this strategy responsibly, but it’s made my wife and I thousands of dollars.

Related: Credit Card Rewards 101: How to Earn Free Cash and Travel by Spending Smarter

Real Estate Investing

Rental real estate is one of the oldest side hustles in the books, and is still viable today.

If your local market is too expensive, take a look at Arrived, a cool online marketplace built for busy investors. For as little as $100, you can buy shares of cash-flowing rental properties.

Hands-Off Rentals

Arrived | Cash Flowing Rentals

4.5

Pros:

• Earn quarterly dividends
• Completely hands-off
• Low minimum investment ($100)

Cons:

• Limited liquidity
• Not super diversified
• Listings can sell out quickly

Learn More

We earn a commission if you sign up, at no additional cost to you.

My friend Dustin Heiner built up his rental portfolio and was able to retire before 40 on the cash flow.

Reselling Furniture Returns

As a part-time Sharetown rep, you’ll pick up gently-used furniture returns from direct-to-consumer brands.

Since the items aren’t new, the companies can’t really take them back and resell them — but you can. The Sharetown reps I’ve connected with report earning $150-250 per item.

And the cool part is the inventory doesn’t cost you anything until it sells.

Highest Earning Power

Become a Sharetown Rep

4.0

Sharetown reps make money by reselling gently-used furniture and bed-in-a-box mattresses. Top reps earn $4000+ per month.

Pros:

• Low startup costs
• Great earning power
• No hunting for inventory

Cons:

• Requires a truck or SUV
• Bulky items to store
• Not available in all areas

Apply Now

Our Sharetown Review

Check out our full Sharetown review to learn more.

Serious About Making Extra Money?

• Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
• Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
• Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.

The award-winning Side Hustle Show is a
Top 10 Entrepreneurship podcast
with over 1,200 5-star ratings!

Listen in your favorite podcast app or directly in your browser.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you get paid for your data?

Yes, you can get paid for your data by installing tracking apps on your computer and smartphone. These apps monitor your behavior and location in the background, and in exchange, pay you. The rates are usually in the range of $10-50 per year.

How much can you make sharing your data?

While there are several companies that will pay for your Internet and mobile data usage, none will make you rich. At best, serious data sellers can earn around $500 a year.

What companies will pay you for your data?

Many reputable companies will pay you for your data, including Comscore, Nielsen, Capital One, and Fetch Rewards.

Buying low and selling high is a mega-popular business for side hustlers and big corporations alike. (I mean, this is the basic model that powers Walmart and Amazon!)

With product flipping, you can turn bargain-hunting prowess into profits. In this post, you’ll learn how to turn your love of flea markets, yard sales, and thrift stores into an extra income stream.

Stick around to read:

• Where to find some educational and inspirational free training on flipping products
• The most popular marketplaces to resell your items
• The most profitable types of products to be on the lookout for

Want $500?

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The Best Items to Flip for Profit

Flipping, or reselling, is a popular side hustle since anyone can do it and it doesn’t require a big investment.

However, not all items are easy to resell. You need to concentrate on products that are in demand. Focusing your flipping efforts on more popular items means that you can sell faster and easier.

Your location and personal preferences will also affect your choices of what to flip. In addition, you’ll want to consider logistics, shipping, and storage.

It also helps to know the value of what you’re selling. Stick to product categories that you know and find interesting.

(For extra credit, be sure put your purchases on a business credit card and earn rewards!)

To get started, here’s a list of the best items to flip.

1. Bed-in-a-Box Mattress Returns

Most online mattress companies offer a 100-night satisfaction guarantee. But what happens when customers are unhappy with their purchase?

That’s where Sharetown comes in. Sharetown is a “reverse logistics” company that coordinates mattress pickups and their subsequent donation or resale. As a local Sharetown rep, you’ll be dispatched to:

• pick up (often) like-new mattresses
• clean and sanitize them
• re-list them for sale on places like Facebook Marketplace

You profit on the spread between your resale price and the amount you owe Sharetown for sourcing the product. But what’s cool is you don’t have to pay for the mattress until it sells. This makes it a very low-risk side hustle as long as you have the means to transport and store these bulky items.

Side Hustle Nation Approved

Become a Sharetown Rep

4.0

Sharetown reps make money by reselling gently-used furniture and bed-in-a-box mattresses. Top reps earn $4000+ per month.

Pros:

• Low startup costs
• Great earning power
• No hunting for inventory

Cons:

• Requires a truck or SUV
• Bulky items to store
• Not available in all areas

Apply Now

Our Sharetown Review

Staci Aburto, a Sharetown mattress reseller in Phoenix, reported earning $3,000-$4,000 a month doing this part time.

2. Clearance Items

Finding deeply discounted items is the first step toward a profitable flipping business. One place to source that inventory is the “clearance” section of nearby retail stores or websites.

The key is to find goods that are highly desirable and worth enough money to make a profit after expenses.

Be on the lookout for popular brands, seasonal items, and limited editions. 

Reselling on Amazon

One way to resell clearance items is to become an Amazon reseller. You can shop for good deals, send them into Amazon’s warehouse, and let them take care of the fulfillment when someone buys. You don’t have to worry about returns, product descriptions, or shipping to customers.

Check out my podcast interview with Jessica Larrew to learn more about reselling on Amazon. When we spoke, she and her husband had sold over $1 million worth of products on Amazon!

(I did this myself for a while and earned over $650 very part-time.)

Online Arbitrage

One thing I didn’t like about my clearance arbitrage side hustle was the actual shopping trips. There where times where I’d spend 45 minutes in a store and leave empty-handed!

The way around that is sourcing your inventory online, with online arbitrage. The idea here is to find wide enough pricing gaps between products on Amazon and the same products sold on other websites.

Thankfully there are software tools to help with this like Tactical Arbitrage and OAXRAY.

3. Furniture

Flipping furniture is a super popular side hustle. There are always people moving as well as people wanting to downsize or redesign their space. In these cases, people are typically quick to sell, which means the possibility of buying low.

Whether it’s wood, upholstered, or outdoor furniture, you can usually find someone selling it and someone looking to buy it.

And, good quality used wood furniture has a long life span with lots of potential. Many times people don’t want to bother putting in the elbow grease it takes to make old furniture new again. With some work, you can increase your flipped furniture’s value to turn a profit.

4. Sports Memorabilia

There will always be sports fans! Be on the lookout for memorabilia like:

• cards
• autographed items
• championship rings
• ticket stubs
• bobbleheads
• vintage hats
• shirts
• jerseys

These items are great to flip on eBay because people buy them as gifts or to add to their own collection.

5. Sports and Exercise Equipment

Sports equipment is another category to be on the lookout for.

Bulky items like home gyms, treadmills, and exercise bikes can actually resell for pretty good prices. And because they take up so much space, sellers are often happy just to get rid of them.

Well-maintained bikes, skis, hockey equipment, and golf clubs are all worth a look. Buyers may be starting a new hobby or purchasing for their kids.

6. Musical Instruments

Musical instruments in good working condition are another item to flip. Both kids and adults frequently outgrow or abandon their hobby.

Once they’ve moved on, you can find musical instruments at a low price to resell for a decent profit. In fact, one Side Hustle Nation reader built an entire eBay business flipping guitars.

7. Power Tools

There’s both demand and availability when it comes to flipping power tools.

New power tools are expensive, so secondhand tools are attractive to people who want to save money.

Look for name brand tools, as buyers will often search by brand name. People sell their power tools when they’re done with a project, moving, or buying a newer model.

8. Baby and Kid Gear

No question—kids’ stuff is expensive. Plus, kids grow fast, which means they outgrow their gear quickly too.

That’s why budget-conscious parents are often on the lookout for gently-used baby and kid gear, such as:

• clothing
• toys
• strollers
• high chairs
• swings
• diaper bags
• Squishmallows

Specialty websites like Kidizen cater to parents looking for designer items for the kiddos.

Pro Tip: Find grandparents selling their young grandchildren’s stuff. These things were probably used infrequently at grandma’s house and are likely to be in great condition.

9. Appliances

Appliances are big, bulky, and heavy, which makes them hard to get rid of. That presents a potential opportunity for you to swoop in and take that problem off their hands. Of course, that’s as long as you have a truck or other vehicle to pick them up and move them.

And since new appliances are expensive, there’s also a healthy market for used ones. So, after you work out the logistics of the transactions, there’s money to be made in flipping appliances.

Ryan Finlay made a full-time income selling used appliances on Craigslist. His advice for people getting started was to try and find a fixed dollar amount (like $50 or $100) of profit each day.

Suggested Playlist: Flipping Profits

Buying low and selling high is the fastest way to multiply money. Here's how to get it done.

Add to Spotify

10. Limited Edition Sneakers

If you’re interested in shoe trends and fashion news, then flipping sneakers may be up your alley.

Manufacturers intentionally don’t produce enough sneakers to meet the demand, creating scarcity. For premium brands like Air Jordans, the high demand and short supply fuels the resale market.

Although you need some capital to get started, sneakers can be some of the best items to flip. In fact, Side Hustle Nation reader JV Ortiz reported earning $10k a month flipping sneakers.

Reselling sneakers allows you to piggyback on the success of a brand and tap into a pre-existing fan base. As such, you don’t have to build your own brand or following.

11. Name Brand Shoes

You don’t have to be a sneakerhead to profit from reselling shoes. In fact, there’s a great market for gently-used name-brand shoes.

I know I’ve shopped eBay for particular models I loved that changed or went out of stock.

Shoes also have the advantages of being:

• small and light to ship
• easy to clean
• readily available at deep discounts at yard sales and thrift shops

A typical purchase price for a pair might be anywhere from $5-15, but can sell for as much as $50-300 depending on the brand and condition.

For example, Beau Hunter shared how you can easily make $250-$1,000 a month flipping shoes. He said large size men’s shoes sell particularly well!

12. Books

Despite the rumor that people don’t read books anymore, there’s still a market for used books. You can flip books at local used book stores and online at Amazon (for a fee).

Flipping books requires sourcing books, so you’re limited by your time and book inventory. But don’t let that discourage you.

On The Side Hustle Show, Charlie William reported earning up to $4000 a month flipping books!

Textbooks and hard-cover non-fiction books tend to be worth the most. Charlie recommended the ScoutIQ app for serious book flippers to quickly scan barcodes to find the profitable titles.

Think you may have a first edition or a desirable rare book? You can use the free Bookscouter tool to scan barcodes and see what titles on your shelf might be worth selling.

13. Vintage Clothing

Whether it’s the desire to capture a trendy look or to save money, vintage clothing has a place in the resale market. It’s not a passing fad.

According to ThredUp, the United States secondhand apparel market is forecasted to almost double by 2027 to $70 billion. (With the resale sector driving the growth.)

The resale market has grown 5 times faster than the broader retail market in recent years.

Although sites like depop and eBay make selling secondhand clothes easier, flipping vintage clothing does take time.

According to Keely Stawicki—who’s sold $270k worth of vintage items—thrifting is labor intensive. Your profit margin needs to make the effort of sourcing, rehabbing, photographing, listing, and shipping the items worthwhile.

Check out the free Flyp app to get access to brand-name clothing on consignment. When you sell it, you split the profits with the owner.

14. Tech: Electronics, Smartphones, and Computers

When it comes to the best items to flip, not all tech gadgets are created equal.

Brands and models that retain their value really well include:

• Apple iPhones
• MacBooks
• iPads
• Samsung Galaxy phones

These used electronics sell for hundreds of dollars, with MacBooks commonly selling for $1000 or more.

In general, smartphones, tablets, smart watches, and computers/laptops are highly desirable.

That doesn’t mean other brands and certain older electronics won’t sell. People may want to save money or find parts for their old gadgets, such as Nintendo game consoles. Some online sleuthing will give you an idea of what’s hot and what’s not.

Popular websites for flipping electronics are Craigslist, eBay, and Swappa, the latter of which can help you find the going rate of your items.

For a few pointers, Side Nation Show guest Jeff Duhon shared how he flips 20-30 used iPhones a week, targeting $100 in profit per flip.

15. VHS and Betamax Tapes

I was a bit surprised by this one, but according to Scott Voelker, both VHS and Betamax tapes can be hot sellers. Even though no one is watching them, they’re considered collectibles — especially if it’s for an iconic film in new condition.

Titles like Top Gun, Back to the Future, and Jaws have all sold for $15,000+.

Be on the lookout for these at garage sales!

16. Video Games

There’s a nostalgia factor to popping in an old video game cartridge from the 1980s or 90s, and those games in working condition can sell well on eBay.

Still, the serious money is in sealed copies. If you happen upon any factory-sealed video games from this era, snatch them up as quickly as you can. Vintage, authentic copies of Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and John Madden Football all sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars!

17. Vehicles

Whether as a hobby, a fixer upper project, or as a mode of transportation, used cars are still popular.

The goal is still to buy low and sell high, but in this scenario you’ll need a bigger buy-in than most other items on this list.

Flipping cars works best as a side hustle for those who:

• love the thrill of negotiation
• can find undervalued cars
• are somewhat mechanically-inclined

Important note: Some states have sales limitations before you’re legally required to register as a “dealer.”

18. Designer Eyeglass Frames

Prescription eyeglasses are expensive, so people often go to eBay to find designer frames at a discount.

Your profit will depend on the brand, style, and popularity. Still, selling a used pair of prescription glasses for $30-$70 isn’t a bad flip, especially if you have them laying around the house or were able to score some at a garage sale.

19. Collectible Jewelry

Authentic Bakelite jewelry and finely crafted vintage costume jewelry from designers like Monet and Trifari are still sought after in today’s thrift marketplace. Plus, these items are small, lightweight, and easy to ship.

Etsy is a good website for reselling costume jewelry.

The value depends on the quality, demand, and style. And, you need to make sure you’ve got the real deal and not a knock-off.

You can resell jewelry in singles or groupings, depending on the level of effort you want to go through. Grouping means fewer listings and some buyers prefer to buy in groups to reduce costs.

20. Commercial Equipment

What do riding lawnmowers, scissor lifts, insulation blowers, and pizza ovens have in common? They’re all items Rob Stephenson has flipped for a profit!

(The Genie boom lift he bought for $3500 sold for over $10k.)

When he comes across one of these items, the first thing he does is try to find out the retail price. He knows that selling one used, he’s likely to get 50% of the original price.

And because these are often super heavy, bulky, hard-to-store items, many sellers are motivated to get rid of them for far less than that. If you have the storage space and means to transport these things, don’t overlook them when you’re sourcing!

Check out Rob’s free online training to learn more.

21. Rare or Retro T-Shirts

The clothes we wear are part of our identity, and some people love to find cool retro shirts. In this category, sports teams merchandise and bands can do really well.

Sure, you might have been a toddler during that 1988 Metallica concert, but that doesn’t mean you can’t rock the shirt hard :)

These are good items to look for at garage sales and thrift stores.

22. Board Games

My family loves finding and playing new board games, but sometimes fun games go out of production and can be hard to find.

That’s what makes this a popular category on eBay and other marketplaces. People may be looking to relive a childhood favorite, replace missing pieces, or just try something new.

23. Vintage Items in a Set or a Collection

Not everything “vintage” is worth money. Nostalgia plays a role in value as does rarity and demand.

But there are some brands and items that command interest and popularity. Typically, the older the better—especially if the items are unique, limited, and hard to come by.

And when you can combine items like this into a set or a collection, the value increases. (You’ve seen Storage Wars, right?)

Examples might include:

• pins
• action figures
• sewing patterns
• patches
• cards
• stamps
• vinyl records
• silverware
• china
• watches
• artwork
• dolls

Fans of iconic brands like Disney, Star Wars, Vogue, Barbie, the Beatles, Kiss, Hot Wheels, and Tiffany’s are out there just waiting to fill or find their next collection.

24. Scrap Metal

Coach Dom Costa shared how to scrap metal for money, a side hustle that earns him $400+ per month. While it can take a literal ton of metal to make any serious cash, you can often score your “inventory” for free.

Recycling centers pay to take it off your hands since it reduces landfill waste and the need to mine new raw materials.

Costa said he sources scrap metal from Craigslist, local businesses, and his neighbors. Non-ferrous metals like copper, brass, and aluminum tend to be worth the most.

25. Domain Names

Here’s an asset with no physical inventory to store! Domain names are digital real estate that can be bought, sold, and flipped like any other product.

I sat down with one domain investor who (on average) buys names for $40 and resells them for $2800. That’s a pretty nice return, right?!

The downside is he only sells 2% of his inventory each year, so he has a lot of these domain names sitting around collecting digital dust.

26. Websites

Cash-flowing websites are bought and sold every day on marketplaces like Flippa and Empire Flippers. A typical purchase price may be 20-40 times monthly earnings, which means you can “fix and flip” a site — just like you might do with a neglected house.

If you know how to increase traffic or improve the existing monetization of a site, you may find some quick wins and earn a great return.

27. Stocks and Options

I’ve always considered stock market investing as a long-term game, but others take a more active approach to trading stocks and options. Like other side hustles, be sure to do your research and educate yourself before making any big moves.

Option Alpha has a tremendous library of free resources, and you can set up a practice trading account before putting any real dollars at risk.

28. Raw Land

Flipping raw land involves finding motivated sellers to buy parcels of land on the cheap. Then you can either resell those parcels for a quick flip or as an owner-financed sale.

There’s a lot involved in flipping land, including upfront investment and know-how. Check out my interview with Roberto Chavez, who was bringing in $10k a month flipping land when we recorded.

Next, grab your free land investing launch kit here.

29. Trading Cards

One of the hottest side hustles of the past couple years has been flipping trading cards, particularly Pokémon and baseball cards.

In this article, my friend Ben breaks down how he spent $100,000 on Pokémon cards during the pandemic. He reported already selling $112k worth of cards, plus is sitting on approximately $70k more in inventory.

30. Fruit

When Shannon Houchin reached out to share her peach flipping business, I was intrigued! Over the last 10 years, she’s built quite an empire of roadside produce stands — and says you can flip $300 worth of peaches into $1000 in a weekend.

What kind of local produce could you resell?

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Where to Sell Your Items

Now that you’ve collected items, it’s time to sell them. There are lots of options, but here are a few well-known online marketplaces.

• eBay – This long-running marketplace has over 135 million users. That gives you good visibility on items, but does charge sellers fees. (More on how to make money on eBay.)
• Facebook Marketplace – Great for selling items locally, with no fees and no integrated payment processing. I sold my old car on Marketplace; the buyer paid cash.
• OfferUp – Free online selling app for local transactions. There are various service fees, but none for in-person exchanges. The app uses Stripe for payment processing of shipped goods.
• Craigslist – The OG reselling site still fuels a lot of local sales transactions. No integrated payment processing, but most postings are free.
• Mercari – A free app that lets you sell new or used items from your phone. No in-person transactions, all items are shipped. Sellers are protected with a payment guarantee and shipping insurance. Listings are free but there’s a flat 10% selling fee.
• Poshmark – Sell fashion and home-related items from upscale brands like Coach, Michael Kors, and Louis Vuitton. Think of it as an online consignment shop. Selling fees are $2.95 for sales under $15 and 20% commission for sales of $15 or over.
• VarageSale – This “virtual garage sale” is made up of communities where members can buy and sell items locally with no fees.
• Specialty Marketplaces – Depending on what you’re flipping, there are other online and in-person marketplaces for selling, like forums, swap meets, Etsy (for vintage goods), Autotrader (for vehicles), and consignment stores.

Flipping 101

Fun fact: You don’t need any money to begin flipping items.

Instead, start with what you already have collecting dust in your own closet, attic, and garage.

There’s also free stuff available online from buy/sell sites like:

• Craigslist’s Free section
• Facebook Marketplace
• Freecycle

If you don’t mind getting a little dirty, you can also find free items to flip by looking through curbside garbage, junkyards, and even dumpster diving.

You can reach out to friends and family to see if they have any stuff they no longer want. You’d be surprised how many people will offload their “junk” at no cost just to get rid of it.

Side note: junk removal is another legit side hustle too. Maybe you could even get paid to source some inventory!

When it comes to finding free stuff, your only limitation is your imagination.

Once you’ve exhausted ways to get free items to flip, you can branch out to other places to find bargains, including:

• flea markets
• estate sales
• auctions
• yard sales
• thrift stores
• websites and apps

After all, buying low and selling high is one of the fastest ways to multiply money. You can do this strictly in your spare time or on weekends, too.

Free Product Flipping Training

This post wouldn’t be complete without a mention of my favorite “Flea Market Flippers,” Rob and Melissa Stephenson of Florida.

This husband and wife team consistently earn thousands of dollars a month by flipping items part-time, enough to support their family without getting a “real job”!

They put together this free online training on how to get started and make your first sales in as little as 2 weeks.

Check it out to learn:

• whether or not flipping items is a good fit for you
• how flipping can lead to freedom and security
• insider secrets on how to grow your flipping profits

Final Thoughts About the Best Items to Flip

Although the resale market is a growing opportunity, items fall in and out of popularity based on trends and current events. Always research first!

As most resellers advise, stick with what you know and like. And, even if an item’s cost is super low, don’t forget to account for shipping and other fees.

Your level of interest and a good profit margin are important in determining your best items to flip.

Have you flipped any items to make extra money? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments below!

Looking for More Side Hustle Help?

• Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
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Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best items to flip for a profit?

The list on Side Hustle Nation contains commonly-found items like exercise equipment, books, and shoes. Used electronics, furniture, commercial equipment, and sports memorabilia are also popular among both hobbyist and professional resellers.

What are the easiest things to flip?

Start with “free” inventory — stuff you already own or help friends and neighbors sell their stuff on consignment. That way you’ll learn if you like the process before purchasing more inventory. Flipping isn’t an easy business, but name-brand merchandise in great condition will always move faster than generic products.

Where can I find items to flip?

Resellers source profitable inventory from thrift stores, garage and yard sales, estate sales, individual sellers, wholesale vendors, and even online outlets and retail stores. The key is being able to quickly spot a deal and find a new buyer.

***********
Big thanks to Meghan Monaghan for researching and drafting this post!

Google’s Helpful Content Update (HCU) hit a lot of online businesses hard. Even well-established and authoritative websites experienced a significant drop in their rankings.

That’s why I went behind the scenes with Kelan Kline from The Savvy Couple, which has weathered the storm quite well.

Kelan built his online business up from making $50 in the first year to now seeing around 500k pageviews a month. That led to his online business making 7-figures last year.

Tune in to Episode 605 of the Side Hustle Show to learn:

• Strategies for creating content that resonates with Google’s algorithm changes
• Ways to diversify traffic sources beyond just Google search
• Tools/tech for content creation, email marketing, monetization, and more.

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Building Brand Authority After Google’s HCU

Kelan says a strong online brand is essential to surviving Google algorithm updates like the HCU.

“You have to build a brand,” he said, emphasizing the importance of social media, email lists, and video.

Backlinks from respected sites still carry weight in rankings. Staying in a niche also helps bloggers become the trusted source their audience relies on.

Creating Genuinely Helpful Content

But brand-building alone isn’t enough in Google’s eyes. Their crackdown demands truly helpful content that provides unique value beyond simply rewriting what’s already out there.

Kelan creates YouTube videos summarizing his blog posts to showcase his authority and experience on each topic. Tools like Heatmapit.com and Crazy Egg allow him to analyze visitor engagement metrics and optimize content layouts.

He also uses AI writing assistants like SurferSEO, Jasper AI, and ChatGPT. This accelerates production while preserving the human touch of the final product.

The Content Production Engine

Kelan’s team uses Asana for content workflow management. For The Savvy Couple, they publish 2-3 new posts per week, with a production cost around $150-200 each. For the newer The Savvy Mama blog (managed by his wife Brittany), that volume is ramped up to around 4-5 posts weekly.

They set a minimum of 500 monthly searches (per Ahrefs data) for new topics but don’t obsess over “keyword difficulty” scores. As long as at least one other blog ranks in the top 10 results, they’ll take a swing at that keyword.

“Make sure that when you’re doing keyword research, there’s at least one other blog that’s similar to yours within the SERPs or within the top 10. Because if it’s Forbes and New York Times … there’s no way you’re going to rank,” he shared.

The Content Audit and Republishing Process

Nowadays, more of Kelan’s content team’s time is spent updating and republishing existing articles rather than creating net new pieces.

Using SurferAI, they’ll analyze posts that are losing traffic according to Ahrefs data. Those audits identify what user experience or content upgrades are needed, like adding new videos, visuals, or interviews to make the post more valuable.

It’s a bit of a never-ending cycle. “By the time you’re done updating everything, it’s time to start back over at the beginning and do it all over again.”

However, content updates are crucial to maintain a high-quality library that Google likes after the HCU changes.

Diversifying Traffic Sources

While the email lists don’t convert particularly well for course sales/affiliate offers, Kelan does use them strategically to send traffic and engagement signals to new blog posts.

He’ll typically include a link to one or two fresh articles in the regular email newsletter send to that “warm” audience. Those initial surges in pageviews right after publishing can give posts a visibility boost in Google.

Email lists are built primarily through ConvertBox exit-intent popups promoting lead magnets like “Ready to Find Your Perfect Side Hustle?” quiz popup, or general opt-in offers for organization/productivity tips for moms.

The bigger traffic diversification play has been creating videos summarizing the same topics and keywords as Kelan’s top posts, then embedding those clips on the corresponding blog pages.

This allowed his “7 Best Budgeting Apps for 2024 (Mint Alternatives)” video to explode to 46,000+ views—generating a ton of new affiliate conversions and traffic back to the blog.

Pinterest has also become a major traffic source, especially for The Savvy Mama thanks to acquiring another site’s 100,000 follower Pinterest account.

And paid ads were a major investment, with Kelan’s team spending up to $10,000 a day at one point on Facebook campaigns to rapidly grow the Savvy Mama membership base around the holidays.

The Chaos to Control Bundle Funnel

Much of Kelan’s advertising dollars go toward promoting the SavvyMama side of the business.

A core funnel starter offer is the Chaos to Control bundle of digital products and printables designed to help busy moms get organized.

That bundle has a $35 average order value once you factor in upsells. Through some serious testing and tracking, Kelan found the cost to acquire those customers lands around $30 each.

The real goal of those paid campaigns is to get buyers into the membership lifecycle.

While the initial bundle transaction has a low(ish) profit margin, Kelan said it’s really about converting those customers into recurring subscribers.

The Savvy Mama Membership

Kelan said they follow a sequence outlined in Create & Go’s Six-Figure Course Creator. It all starts with agitating the problem potential members are struggling with.

There’s also an element of scarcity and limited time bonuses. For example, the Chaos to Control bundle might be offered as a bonus that goes away if you don’t join the membership within the launch window.

Kelan noted this evergreen launch funnel is all facilitated through ThriveCart. This all-in-one platform handles checkout flows, membership access, and content delivery for just a $495 one-time fee instead of recurring monthly charges from some competing solutions.

Once they join the membership, subscribers get access to a library of printables, meal plans, calendars, and other premium digital downloads refreshed every month. There’s also a Facebook group community component.

The membership was initially priced at $9 per month (they got the idea from Liz Wilcox), but it is now around $17 per month.

Just around 2 years in, the Savvy Mama membership has rapidly grown to over 2000 active paying subscribers.

The Tools and Tech Stack

To handle all of this, Kelan has an extensive tech stack powering the content production, website, email marketing, and membership sides of the business:

• SurferSEO, Jasper AI, and ChatGPT – AI writing tools to assist with outlining, drafting, and optimizing blog content
• HeatMapIt and Crazy Egg – Heat maps and scroll tracking to analyze how visitors engage with each webpage
• Asana – Project management hub for delegating writing tasks to the freelance content team
• ConvertBox – Popups and lead capture tools to build the email lists
• ThriveCart – All-in-one platform handling Savvy Mama membership sales, access, and content delivery
• Mediavine – Display ad network to monetize the growing blog traffic

A Day in the Life of a 7-Figure Blogger

With so many moving parts, you might expect Kelan and his wife Brittany to be chained to their computers 12 hours a day. But they’ve established efficient systems and brought on a team to divide up the workload.

Kelan described a fairly focused 3-4 hour work day. “After that, my brain is complete mush. I don’t know how people work 8 hours a day, I just become so less productive after 4 hours of deep work,” he admitted.

An operations manager runs point on the team of writers, editors, and virtual assistants actually doing the bulk of the day-to-day content creation, optimization, and other tasks.

Kelan just checks in to review analytics and identify which of their top 20 posts need further optimization efforts.

Challenges and Surprises

Business hasn’t been all smooth sailing, though.

Kelan recalled the painful experience of one of his top affiliate income streams—a partnership promoting the Steady App gig work service—shutting down unexpectedly.

“At our peak, we were making close to $5,000 per month. And if you extrapolate that out 12 months, that’s $60,000. And then all of a sudden, they come over and say, ‘Hey, program’s closed.'”

That taught Kelan how important it is to have different sources of income.

Hence, the Savvy Mama membership, “It’s been such a blessing to take the stress off of owning the Savvy Couple and being so reliant on Google by having this recurring monthly membership that we can rely on,” Kelan added.

What’s Next for the Savvy Blogger?

Looking ahead, Kelan’s goal is to continue growing the membership to 10,000 members, further strengthening that recurring revenue foundation.

YouTube is another major priority he’s doubling down on. With a powerful “double-dip” SEO strategy by co-producing videos and blog posts around the same topics, Kelan sees big potential on the video platform before AI-powered content oversaturates it.

Kelan’s online business, mixing blogs and videos with multiple income sources, is bound to not only survive but to also do well in the post-HCU era.

Kelan’s #1 Tip for Side Hustle Nation

“Action over perfection.”

Episode Links

• Google’s Helpful Content Update (HCU)
• The Savvy Couple
• Heatmapit.com
• Crazy Egg
• SurferSEO
• Jasper AI
• ChatGPT
• Ahrefs
• ConvertBox
• Chaos to Control bundle
• Create & Go’s Six-Figure Course Creator
• ThriveCart
• The Savvy Mamas membership
• Asana
• Mediavine
• Steady App

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