“Do drop shipping on the side,” they say.
“Create a blog and make money.”
“Make a TikTok channel and make thousands every month.”
There is no lack of ideas online. And gurus will tell you how they make thousands of dollars in 60 seconds thanks to their wonderful method.
No wonder people ask: Do side hustles really work?
Instead of guessing or believing the gurus’ cheap words, let us look at proof.
Luckily, we have ways to find out.
Maybe you have seen this great offer for a course or software that tells you that you can make money with a push of a button.
60 seconds max.
Would you believe it? You should not. Unless you see the marketer do it himself consistently and having done so for a long time.
Instead, you should check people doing the side hustle you are considering.
Let us say you are interested in starting a blog on the side. If you do not know any bloggers now, start on YouTube. Check people who teach others about blogging.
Then go to their blogs.
How old is their blog? If it is more than one year old and the blogger still creates new posts, then clearly it is worth their time.
Ask yourself this question: Would they still be blogging if this side hustle did not work?
Or if you considered writing fiction as a side hustle.
Check Amazon’s best-seller lists. Go after those that are self-published. Have any of these writers been doing it for a while? Are their older books ranking well, too?
Ask yourself the same question.
Or if you considered creating Notion templates. Check Gumroad for Notion templates. Check Etsy. You can tell from how they are ranking if they make money or not.
Do you still wonder if side hustles really work?
Okay, I think we can safely conclude that side hustles work.
But… Just because it works for some people, it does not automatically apply to you. Sorry.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that since writing fiction works for a lot of indie authors, then you should do the same.
Maybe you should. Here are some things to consider before you pick your side hustle.
Are you interested in that side hustle?
If you never read fiction, it is a bad idea to start writing it.
If you do not use Notion and hate numbers, then it will not help you to know that some template creators made $10,000 in their third month.
So before you go all in buying courses and learning more about a side hustle, you should find out a few things first.
Are you interested?
People make money writing on Medium as a side hustle. But if you are not interested in any of the topics that work there, how would it help you? It will not.
Do you love it or at least like it?
People make money setting up starter blogs and then selling them again.
But if you hate anything tech and WordPress in particular, it is not a good fit for you. Sure, you could make money.
But it would be a daily fight with yourself to get started.
Do you have the patience it takes to make money?
People talk a lot about motivation.
It is important. But if you are not motivated to do something good for yourself, then I do not know… Then you should probably give up on the idea of getting a side hustle.
It is more important to have patience.
Work on your side hustle every day. Be patient. Expect it to take time before you will make any money.
Can you do that?
I cannot help you finding patience. But I can help guide you towards a side hustle that will work for you.
You need a piece of paper for this exercise.
And 30 minutes of undisturbed time. Plus a pen or pencil.
During the first 7 minutes, make a list of all your existing skills. What do you know? What can you do? What are you willing to learn more about, but you have some knowledge already?
During your next 7 minutes, write down everything you are interested in. Everything you love or at least like doing. Yes, even write down the crazy things.
During your following 11 minutes, put a circle around topics that you are both interested in and you have knowledge or skills about. Then do a quick check for those topics on Amazon, Udemy and Clickbank.
Can you find them? Does it look as if they are making money with those topics?
Good.
Now you have 5 minutes left to pick one of the topics with a circle around and which also makes money.
Let us say you found that you love to read romance.
You also love to write and you found that romance books sold well on Amazon.
Writing romance fiction would be a nice little side hustle then, right?
The only way to find out if it will work for you is to do it.
Do it consistently for at least three months. Some side hustles will take more than that. Fiction writing being one of them. So this will take some faith as well.
If you like doing, keep doing it.
Give it a chance to work for you.
Online side hustles really work, yes.
But the side hustles that work for some people may not work for others. You need to find what can work for you and give it enough chance to see if it does.
If you do not find it in the first attempt, try again.
There is a side hustle out there for most people. And when you find it, give it a chance.
It is worth it.