10 Side hustles to make 10k $ per month
Spoiler: No one said: affiliate programs. Selected for a famous Reddit post with over 1,800 answers.
What is the REDDIT post about?
This post, with a simple yet direct prompt, shows how Reddit can be a more valuable source of inspiration than ChatGPT.
Real experience, real people, real money. Spoiler: No one answered ‘affiliate programs’.
Some inspiration:
1. Private and group guitar and ukulele instruction.
“I market myself locally and drum up my own business, and over the years have built my clientele to the point that I have a waiting list. That brings in $2400/week, but that’s my ceiling due to not being able to manufacture more time in the day to teach. So for expansion, I’m currently working on producing a series of books and videos and creating my own line of instructional materials. My goal is $200K/year and I have a 5-year plan to achieve that with many sub-goals along the way.” Lessons: There is definitely room to monetize passions.
2. Website development (freelance)
“I sell subscription websites for $150 a month. Custom coded. I make about $5200 a month on residual income from that alone. Then I sell lump sum sites for $3500 and $25 a month hosting. I generally sell 1–2 lump sums a month.”
Apparently, everything is about scale, so this person it tries to reuse the maximum of components and send a couple of ours on content creation with chatGPT and asset optimization to get the page speed scores up to 100/100 and make google happy. Then I launch them with Netlify to host it for free.
“I’m currently working on 2 at the same time right now. It’s pretty chill.”
Lesson: I am tempted by his ‘subscription model’ for website development.
3. Dumpster Rental
Full disclosure: I did not know it was a thing before reading this post.
“I net around 18k a month, no employees”. Apparently, his clients are used for home improvement projects. He also NETS them. The rental price is 450$ per day.
I will dig more into that.
4. Escape rooms and a selfie studio.
Full disclosure (2): I did not know a ‘selfie studio’ was a thing either.
How much you make? “Average 22.5k a month”, according to the person who answered.
🔺 Alert, the person also says:
“.. the Escape Room industry is approaching maturity. We have been open 7+ years and have worked very, very hard to get to a 22.5K a month average”
5. Math learning center (franchise).
“My husband and I own and operate a Mathnasium”.
Personally, not a big fan of it. AI and virtual lessons are taking over.
6. Consulting
Many comments about consulting. Start-up consulting, technical consulting, career consulting. The nice thing of course is there are close to zero overheads.
7. Book sales on Amazon
This is interesting but the person did not say much. What kind of books? “Nonfiction — a blend of intellectual and self-development work”
Really curious to see how he manage do differentiates from 98% of writer who don’t make money.
8. Virtual School for Sewing Machine Repair
Totally niche but quite smart. Look at this:
The need: “The issue is that unlike any other home appliance, one, there is an emotional attachment to sewing machines, and two, it requires maintenance regularly and occasionally repairs”
And a gap in the market: “There isn’t really a way to learn machine service. The people with the knowledge and skill that would be able to teach these skills are old (and I mean OLD), and have zero interest in anything technological. I am lucky that at 47, I have one foot in each generation — not only do I have a 15-year service and repair career, but I also know how to do things online and market. So I’m lucky that I struck while the iron is hot.”
Results: “I’m actually hitting $20-$30k/month right now… it’s taken me a few years to find the right formula since no one has done this before…Honestly, it is as much luck and destiny as it is a good business model”
9. Wholesale breakfast company and bakery in Colorado
His wife is Baking, he’s Cooking.
A simple product list: Our product line consists of over 100 different products, which sounds like a lot, but it’s really just a bunch of variations of cookies, brownies, pies, breakfast sandwiches, RTE chia puddings and overnight oats, and cold-pressed juices. … we offer a lot of gluten-free, keto, vegetarian, vegan and even low-fat options. This quickly adds up in your catalog.
I own a decent DSLR camera that I use to take pictures of our products (but don’t let it stop you, most phones take excellent pictures too) and we put together a quick catalog on Canva showcasing our unit price, suggested retail price, and minimum quantity for each item.
A great selling strategy: Then we went on Google Maps and compiled a list of every independently owned coffee shop and café in a 40 mile radius, and with the magic of the Internet, we quickly had a prospect list, complete with email and phone number. We then started introducing ourselves to the shop owners and offering free samples, along with a copy of our catalog.
Asset-lightm model: Once we had some interest and we knew the business had a chance to succeed, we signed a 3 month lease at a commercial commissary kitchen, which is basically $300/mo. for one 6-hour shift per week, and is month to month after the first 3 months. The advantage with this route is that you get access to a fully licensed and inspected kitchen, you can scale responsibly, and the best of all, you can call it quits after 3 months if you don’t like it or if it doesn’t work out and you don’t lose $100k worth of equipment that you can’t get rid of.
10. Overemployment with 100% remote jobs.
Ok I like this one. He did not say much but apparently he cumulates different ‘full-time’ jobs with remote corporate. Genious.
