The Best Side Hustles: Top Earners and Easiest Entries

It seems as if everybody has at least one side hustle. In 2022, 40% of Americans did at least some work on the side. Want to know your options? Lucky you! We've provided this overview of today's best side hustles.

There's also a small plug for our own favorite. (Hint: you're on a website dedicated to newsletters and their creators.) Other lists fail to mention it despite the existence of multiple 7-figure earners in the industry. (We're not salty.) It’s a pretty cushy gig with an excellent rate of return.

But truly, we want you to find your own side-hustle bliss — whatever it may be. Here are some points and jobs to consider.

How Do Side Hustles Make Money?

Most people take on extra work for extra income. The last few years have been tough, and 41% of 2022's hustlers need their side gigs for basic living expenses. Others put that money into savings, pay down debt, or spend it on non-necessities.

How do these people make money?

• Passion – Turn your hobby into a side hustle.

• Commitment – Work more, earn more.

• Patience – More lucrative side gigs often take longer to return on your investments of time and labor.

In addition, some of the most successful hustlers are the most creative. Don't take this article as an all-inclusive list of possible jobs. If you see an opportunity, seize it.

What Are the Best Side Hustles?

It all depends on how you define "best." Do you want the most lucrative side hustle? The most enjoyable one? The one that takes the least time?

For example, dog sitters may not earn the big bucks, but they have a pretty sweet gig. They get all the fun of a temporary pet, but the owners pay them instead of vice versa.

What Is a Realistic Side Hustle?

The average side hustle brings in a cool $1,122 a month. Pair that with the average time spent working a side gig — 11-16 hours a week — and you come up with about $16-$23 an hour. But the median income is much lower, at $200 a month. A lot of workers dwell at the lower end of the spectrum.

The sky may be the limit, but no one should expect to soar immediately. A realistic side hustle plan should include a reasonable goal (both financial and time-wise) and the steps it takes to get there.

What Are the Top 5 Side Hustles?

If you wonder where your peers are spending their extra work hours, chances are it's in one of these fields. From the top, the most popular industries for side hustles are:

• Online and social media

• Ridesharing and delivery

• Online shop

• Freelancing

• Selling crafts and designs

A good way to start brainstorming for your own venture is to make a list of possibilities in each of these. What kind of store could you run? What social media platforms have you mastered? And so on.

What Is the Easiest Side Hustle?

A lot of side hustles only require you to make an account on a given platform. Then you can start looking for jobs or selling old belongings.

Think about your resources. What skills and assets do you possess? Are you good with computers? Do you have a car?

As in all things, never forget the wisdom of The Princess Bride:

Westley: I mean, if we only had a wheelbarrow, that would be something.

Inigo Montoya: Where did we put that wheelbarrow the albino had?

Fezzik: Over the albino, I think.

Westley: Well, why didn't you list that among our assets in the first place?

When listing your resources, cast your net broadly. You probably have more than you think, and even ordinary tools can come in handy.

Task Rabbit is a site for odd-jobbers to make some extra cash. I recently used it to find someone who would shovel snow from the street in front of my mailbox. (My mailman wrote me a note expressing his displeasure. It was not my proudest moment.) The Rabbit provided the shovel.

What Side Hustles Are in Demand?

The fastest-growing industries that lend themselves to side hustles are:

• Personal care and services

• Computer and mathematical

• Arts, design, and media

• Transportation and material moving

• Finance

Help businesses with their digital marketing, cyber security, or basic bookkeeping. If you'd rather take a break from your computer, find local odd jobs. There are a lot of chores that people don't want to do for themselves.

What Side Hustles Pay the Most?

It's finally time to talk about the cold, hard cash. These are some of the side hustles that pay the most.

Short-Term Rentals

If you have the funds available, you can always invest in real estate to rent out long-term. But more and more people are making money through sites such as Airbnb and VRBO.

You don't need to have a spare castle to make money with vacation rentals. (But if you do, we should be friends.) Make money by renting out a spare room, or during extended absences from your home.

Professional Services/Consulting

People with highly specialized and in-demand professional skills can earn a lot after their regular workday ends. For example, a software developer might do some freelance coding or web design work, finding gigs on a site such as Upwork.

Virtual Assistant

Virtual assistants can command hourly rates up to $100. It's a quickly growing industry, too, as more and more people want help running their lives and businesses online.

Interested? Check out the resources at VA Networking.

Blogs

Most bloggers never see a dime from their work, but writers are making six figures from their blogs alone. Others earn by using their blog to support side hustles such as private coaching, online courses, ebooks, or small e-commerce stores.

Not a writer? Earn money with online videos or graphics. Or, if your social media following is large enough, you can make money off of your posts as an influencer. Platforms such as Social Cat allow smaller brands and micro-influencers to get in on the action.

Newsletters

There is an alternative to posting your content on the internet and crossing your fingers that someone will find it. Start a newsletter instead. That way you can send your articles directly to the people interested in them. With beehiiv, you can monetize your work by selling ad space, subscriptions, or premium content.

How to Make $2K a Month with a Newsletter

If you're starting a newsletter from scratch, understand that it will take you time to build the readership that will turn it into a reliable source of income. As you grow, you’ll need to choose the newsletter business model that makes sense for you.

One source of income is sponsorship, where businesses pay for ad space in your newsletter. Let's say that you have a subscriber base of 10,000 and want to charge $100 for an ad. You'd need to sell 20 each month to reach 2K. Luckily, beehiiv's new ad network makes it easy to connect with potential sponsors.

The other option is to charge for premium content with a paid newsletter. People pay a fee in exchange for access to exclusive content delivered via email newsletters. The price of your newsletter will depend on your rate of publication, the average length of your newsletter, your brand recognition, and the perceived value of its content. After setting the price, you can calculate how many subscribers you need to hit your target. With a price point of $5/month, you'd need 400 subscribers to reach $2K.

Get the Most for Your Time, Expertise, and Other Assets

One of the best things about the creator economy is that it allows you to turn otherwise not profitable interests into sources of income. You could use the beehiiv platform to distribute a newsletter on your favorite B-rated horror movies or life hacks for parents with toddlers.

But maybe you'd prefer to get out and about, driving people around your hometown. Or you could design logos for small businesses or sell your handicrafts on Etsy. Make a list of all the ways you could earn extra dollars. Try not to stop before you reach 10.

The possibilities are nearly endless, and so are your potential earnings. Get hustling. I ask only two things of you:

1. When you're starting, keep your expectations in check. Growth takes time.

2. When you've turned your side job into your main job and made your first million, keep your ego in check. Remember that the real winners are the people who get paid to snuggle with puppies.