Side hustle ideas from people who actually run them
Real side businesses, described by their owners. Filter by cost, time and how they earn.
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- 651 ideas
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- 14 publications and shows
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- Files sold online: templates, printables, ebooks, stock photos, fonts, presets, plugins, recorded courses
- A web app, SaaS, mobile app, browser extension, bot or API that people pay for or that earns from ads
- A blog, niche website, newsletter, YouTube channel, podcast or social account that earns from ads, affiliate links or sponsors
- Making, printing or reselling physical goods, online or in person
- Doing work for clients for a fee: freelance, consulting, done-for-you services, repairs, local services
- Earning from something you own: renting property, rooms, equipment, vehicles, parking, vending machines, domains
- A job board, listings site, directory or marketplace that connects buyers and sellers
- Live tutoring, lessons, workshops, coaching or cohort classes
Matching ideas
About the data89 ideas, page 1 of 2
- Services and freelancingA solo consultant advises teams of five to two hundred people on AI, starting with a paid inbox audit that is credited toward a longer retainer.OnlineThe Side Hustle Show, 2026
- Services and freelancingOffering AI assessments that show businesses what they can automate, then building the solutions with tools like Claude. The founders started by texting people they knew.Under $100OnlineThe Koerner Office, 2026
- Services and freelancingWriting and editing articles for companies that pay for human experience and voice, with AI tools used as helpers. Clients come from Upwork and cold outreach.Under $100Part-timeOnlineThe Koerner Office, 2026
- Services and freelancingWriting jingles for plumbers, roofers and pest control companies, then running them as skippable YouTube ads in the client's area. AI music and voice tools now replace the studio.OnlineThe Koerner Office, 2026
- Services and freelancingThe operator gathers one client's documents, structures them, and loads them into a custom GPT or Claude project so a specific audience can ask it questions instead of the owner. The example was a business broker whose buyers queried the assistant about a listing.Under $100Hands-offOnlineCorey Ganim (YouTube), 2026
- Services and freelancingThe operator replaces a repeated manual process with an automation built on off-the-shelf tools such as Zapier, Make or Asana, usually after a short diagnostic. It is charged as a one-off project, with a walkthrough video and a how-to-fix document handed over.OnlineCorey Ganim (YouTube), 2026
- Services and freelancingThe consultant interviews the owner of one business process, documents how it runs, cuts the wasted steps, and hands over current and future process maps. Automating the redesigned process is sold as a separate follow-on.Under $100Part-timeCorey Ganim (YouTube), 2026
- Services and freelancingThe operator organizes a client's promises, decisions, projects and preferences into a set of linked markdown notes that AI tools can read, then keeps it current with ingest and review routines. It is sold as the first engagement because later automations depend on it.Under $100OnlineBuild With AI, 2026
- Content and mediaDocuments government processes for immigrants and earns commissions on services they need, such as banking, insurance and translations, plus some consulting.Hacker News, 2026
- Services and freelancingWrites technical documentation and grant proposals, matching funding sources to institutions.Under $100OnlineHacker News, 2026
- Content and mediaPosting engaging content, much of it screenshots of other people's posts, to a Facebook page enrolled in Facebook's content monetization program. Facebook shares ad revenue with the creator.Under $100A few hours a weekOnlineSide Hustle Nation, 2025
- Digital productsA template for a note-taking app with a user guide and video course based on the owner's personal system, sold to customers.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- Services and freelancingGets income to support open source maintenance from Patreon, private consulting and a company sponsorship.Under $100OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Content and mediaPublishes personal notes from nonfiction books on a site and earns some money from it.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Digital productsWrites and self-publishes science fiction romance books on the side.Under $100OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Content and mediaRuns a newsletter that profiles the home workspaces of makers and creators, earning recurring revenue.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Physical productsPut cartoon T-shirt designs about software error messages on craft sites.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2022
- Content and mediaRuns a small blog about cash flow that earns a modest monthly income.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Digital productsSelf-publishes fiction and is growing a backlist and an email newsletter to increase sales.OnlineHacker News, 2022
- Digital productsSells a curated list of places to promote side projects, for makers wanting traffic, directly through Gumroad.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2021
- Physical productsEarns twice-yearly royalties from a published book and small licensing deals for translations in other countries.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsCompiles articles and tips from a newsletter into ebooks sold on Leanpub and Amazon.OnlineHacker News, 2019
- Content and mediaA long-running blog on frontend topics that earns from ads and search visitors with only occasional new posts.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Content and mediaMoved all past writing behind Medium's paywall and removed calls to action to qualify for distribution. Earns a monthly share from reader time.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsWrote a regular expressions pocket reference for a technical publisher, earning ongoing royalties.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Content and mediaA regular newsletter about web tools that earns income and leads to paid writing work.A few hours a weekOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsSells a Ruby book on a self-publishing platform, first in the owner's native language and now being translated to English.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsWrote introductory programming tutorials and sells them as ebooks on Leanpub.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Services and freelancingTranslates books about magic, often old ones found along the way, for an editor. It began as a hobby and now pays.Under $100Part-timeHacker News, 2019
- Services and freelancingA CTO with hiring experience helps founders figure out who they need to hire and how to approach them, including finding co-founders.Under $100Part-timeOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsCreated sticker sets for a popular messaging app and earned from their sales.Under $100OnlineHacker News, 2019
- Services and freelancingWrites articles for other people, often on topics outside the writer's own expertise, as one of several side gigs.Under $100OnlineHacker News, 2019
- Services and freelancingA solo lawyer takes referral clients for small legal jobs like setting up LLCs, winding down or selling a business, and reviewing NDAs, charging less than larger firms.Under $100Hacker News, 2019
- Teaching and coachingTaught guitar, theory and recording part-time, and now teaches small groups online and consults with bands on production and composition.Hacker News, 2019
- Physical productsWrites nonfiction books on science and curiosity topics, landing book deals with publishers based on the success of an earlier title.Under $100OnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsDesigns t-shirts with jokes for machine learning and data science fans and sells them through a print-on-demand storefront.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Content and mediaRuns a weekly newsletter that satirizes the tech industry. Revenue is from advertising to the subscriber base, with live events being considered.OnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsSells a harmonica instruction book and science fiction short story collections on Amazon, and also sells stories to magazines.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsWrites travel and lifestyle books and sells them as ebooks and print on demand on Amazon and Apple. Little ongoing work after publishing.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Services and freelancingOffers business strategy consulting to startups using topographical business maps. Aims to help avoid costly mistakes and support fundraising.Part-timeOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Content and mediaA niche blog about getting a professional engineering license, carrying affiliate links to a prep package seller. Earns passively from affiliate commissions.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Content and mediaA video published years ago that YouTube keeps recommending, paying out ad revenue with no promotion by the owner.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Content and mediaA morning briefing about the technology industry that readers pay for, with sponsorships that avoid ad-style promotion.A few hours a weekOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsRuns an online clothing store where ordering and fulfillment are automated. Sells meme shirts and promotes through social media only.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsTranslates well-regarded public domain works into English and sells them as ebooks. Finding niche topics is the key.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Digital productsWrote and self-published an e-book about CSS that has kept selling a year after launch.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Digital productsWrote an ebook on starting and growing a subscription box business, drawn from running one. Sold through Gumroad, Amazon and iBooks, and still sells a little each month.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Digital productsWrites and publishes erotic stories as Kindle ebooks and earns from sales.Under $100OnlineHacker News, 2018