5 Simple Side Hustles Anyone Can Do to Build a Second Income

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By Jacob Maslow

There has never been a better time to think of building a side hustle. Cats might rule the internet, but they have a lot of competition with entrepreneurs in 2021. Let’s dive in and start making money.

1. Upwork

Nothing good has come from the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has changed the way people work, and those changes favor people that want to build a side hustle. If you can write on a fourth-grade level and can learn to write articles, blog posts, and even marketing collateral, you can build a full-time career, let alone a part-time income.

You’ll run into jobs that you won’t know how to do. Research, practice, run your practice pieces by other writers in Copywriting forums on Reddit, and then put the better ones into a portfolio. And just like that, you know how to do those jobs. You can get started on Upwork right away for free.

2. Flipping

Some things don’t change. Buying old furniture and revamping and reselling it isn’t going anywhere. What has changed is that you don’t need to take a tour of every garage sale in town. You can get onto Facebook Marketplace and find your next flip without burning a drop of gas, which will make your flip gig much more efficient.

You don’t have to be an expert. Something as simple as repainting an old chair can boost its resale value.

One of the world’s most successful clothing companies started as a man buying discounted clothes and making alterations.

3. Start a Podcast on Anchor

If you can come up with exciting talking points or even write serial stories and narrate them, you could start a podcast with a service called Anchor. There are plenty of people that will steer you to other services, but Anchor has advantages that pay off as soon as you sign up.

First and foremost, Anchor is free to use. You have all the tools you need to record and produce in the app and the browser.

Second, you can monetize your podcast right away. You’re asked to read ads and record them and insert them into your show. The more people hear the ads, the more money you make.

Third, Anchor distributes your show to all the major platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

4. Ghostwriting

No, this doesn’t mean writing horror stories. It’s a service you provide to people who need books, blogs, and other written things. You write the book for them, and then all the credit for the book goes to your client.  You might even sign a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) guaranteeing that you won’t try to take credit for the project later.

If you can stand to part with the credentials, you can make great money. There’s no shortage of people with something to write, but they don’t have the time or the skill to get it written.

5. Robinhood

This one is a little different since it requires having some money upfront. After all, you can’t invest nothing. But users of Robinhood may not realize the luxury they have of buying and selling a stock at the tap of a screen, rather than going through a human broker.

Robinhood won’t replace your day job anytime soon (not likely, anyway), but it’s a legitimate way of keeping money coming in on the side.

Ready, Set, Money

If you can stick with any one of these suggestions, no matter how slow it seems at first, you will have consistent side-income. The first four especially have the potential to replace your day job entirely.

I built a full-time income through Upwork within a year while working a full-time job and raising kids.

The gold goes to those that grind. Now, get yours!

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