Summary

The article critically examines common online money-making strategies, emphasizing the challenges and misconceptions associated with each.

Abstract

The author of the article provides a realistic perspective on various online side hustles, such as freelancing on platforms like Upwork and Fiverr, participating in surveys and website testing, selling products online, blogging, and affiliate marketing. They highlight that while these methods are often advertised as quick and easy ways to earn money, the reality involves significant effort, time investment, and sometimes upfront costs. The article underscores the importance of understanding the nuances of each side hustle, the need for patience, consistent effort, and often an existing following or unique offering to succeed.

Opinions

Freelancing platforms like Upwork and Fiverr can be misleading with their promises of easy work; they require sending numerous proposals and can involve scams.
Survey and website testing opportunities are not as straightforward as advertised; they often have stringent qualification criteria and can be time-consuming without guaranteed pay.
Flipping and selling products online, such as on eBay, is portrayed as a labor-intensive process with no guarantee of quick profits.
Blogging is seen as a long-term commitment requiring consistency, valuable content, and audience engagement, rather than a fast way to make money.
Affiliate marketing is criticized for its hidden costs, the necessity for a pre-existing audience, and the misleading claim that one can earn without a following.
The author advises caution and skepticism when reading articles that promise quick money from side hustles, advocating for pursuing interests that align with one's skills and passions.

Side Hustle or Side Ache?

Let’s be honest about making money online.

I have read every blog article that came up on my feed claiming you can make money through websites, easy passive income, sites that will pay you to write, and basically anything to make additional income.

I would love to tell you I tried them and give you results, but I didn’t because too many were unrealistic. I noticed a trend and here is the information that seems to be lacking:

Freelancing sites

There are many to choose from, however, Upwork and Fiverr seems to be the top contenders for freelancing.

Upwork: You have to send proposal after proposal until you get a gig. Some may have cracked the code but employers tend to make you wait in anticipation before hiring you. Therefore, the turnaround from proposal to being hired, is not quick. Also, sending a proposal doesn’t guarantee you a job and you still have to do the work. There seems to be a misconception of easy and quick on this platform and it is far from it. In addition, you have to be careful and on alert for scams. I was happy to receive next-step messages after submitting 5 proposals but 2 of the 3 messages seemed to be scammers and the last one completely ghosted me.

Fiverr: Many claim to “just post your packages and the clients come rolling in.” However, this is not how Fiverr works. Posting your packages and patiently waiting for clients to come to you is not quick money and the site is so over-saturated that you must have a unique offering, market the hell out of your gigs, or have some type of existing following.

In addition, some freelancing sites require you to pay a membership and/or pay a fee for each gig you complete.

Remember, the “guaranteed to make 150 to $500 for one gig” headline was to lure you in. Whether you submit proposals or people are “coming to you” (such as Fiverr), you still have to do the work and produce quality work and get good reviews. It’s not quick and easy.

Surveys and website testing

I’ve seen this on multiple platforms to “earn as little as $10 per survey or website testing,” but what they don’t tell you is the amount of work that goes into it. I went as far as getting a user testing app so I could apply to different user testing gigs. I would spend time filling out these questionnaires to discover if I qualified to be a sufficient user for their site, product, or survey and would often not qualify.

Once again! You have to qualify to be part of a user testing.

These user sites are looking for particular users to test their sites and items because that is who they are targeting. A random person can’t take the survey and get paid if they wouldn’t be a user.

Out of the countless user testing jobs I’ve tried, I have only been a candidate for one and the process was much more extensive than you would think.

The testing I was asked to be part of was to test users on a humidifier display screen. The test asked various questions and I had to read the question out loud, answer the question while speaking out loud, and do what the question had asked according to the screen. Therefore, I was being recorded, screen recorded, and needed to be in a quiet space to execute the user testing properly.

Flipping and Selling Products Online

Flipping and selling on any online platform takes time. I tried selling clothes on eBay and the amount of time signing up, posting, and follow-ups to get the item sold was daunting.

I Will Never Sell on eBay Again, Here’s Why!

It’s not for everyone.

kaseyaharrington.medium.com

Flipping physical items adds additional work that is not quick and easy money like some articles claim. Whether you choose to flip small or large items, you have to put in upfront cost to purchase the item, transform it, then put it up for sale hoping you will make some profit.

You have to love flipping or the thrill of online selling to do this side hustle. You will not see a profit right away so understand this will take time and will not be a quick money turnaround for you.

Blogging

I made my first $.09 on Medium last month and was thrilled. I’ve been writing since August on this platform and once I hit 100 followers I was so happy to apply for the Partner Program. However, blogging is about consistency, building an audience, creating valuable content, and takes time. I didn’t start following everyone on this platform hoping for a follow back. I built my audience through engagement, discovering what fit for me, and being as consistent as possible.

Blogging is not a quick turnaround for money-making. If you have cracked the code then I am all ears.

A sub-category of blogging is blogging for sites to make tons of money per article. I’ve read multiple articles that claimed to have “12 sites that will pay you to write” and they turned out to be extremely niche. Although I could fake it till I made it and write about a niche I know nothing about, I would rather write for sites that I am at least remotely interested in. These articles claiming you can make a ton of money blogging and writing for others may help some but for most, they are a waste of a read.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing seems to consume the majority of articles to earn money on the side. However, I do not want to promote a product, course, or any service if I have never done it before.

The articles claiming affiliate marketing is the way to go for side hustles seem to leave out the subscription costs for each site associated with it. Therefore, you may be $200 (each month) in the hole before the month starts. You may make your money back and some profit by the end of the month if you are consistent with promoting your items and actually make a commission on a sale.

This side hustle will not bring fast cash and too many people claim you don’t need a following, but seems a majority of those doing well already had a decent following. Also, you will need to promote your items to get them seen and build your email list.

I fell for an affiliate program course and now receive endless amounts of emails because I am on their distribution list. I receive emails for random items so that person can potentially make a commission off me.

Takeaway

Consume “quick money” and side hustle articles sparingly! Whether the side hustle takes time or is quick, do a side hustle that you are interested in or at least good at.

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