There can be many reasons why you feel the need to introduce a side hustle to your life. For instance, it could be to increase the amount of revenue coming into your household, or the fact that you want something ticking over in the background that could potentially grow enough to replace your current employment. Whatever the reason, you’ll find that you have a few options available to you, which depending on how much time, space, and technical knowledge you have, could fit the bill nicely.
#1 Affiliate marketing
This is a great place to start as you don’t necessarily need to have any products to hand. Instead, you point people in the direction of other products and are paid a commission on any sales. Of course, you’ll need to approach companies to set this up and get a bespoke link so they know what traffic has come from you, but there’s no shortage of options available.
There’s money to be made via this method but it can involve plenty of work for just a small percentage of the final sales price. So, while this might be a good way to get the ball rolling, there are more lucrative ventures that you can choose, where you’re in control of almost every aspect.
#2 Online selling
Online selling can bring greater rewards, as rather than selling other people’s products, you will be selling ones you’ve chosen yourself from your own website. You could sell from Amazon and eBay as well, but your own website is under your control, so if the other platforms take a dislike to what you’re doing, you’ll still have a business.
As you only get a few seconds to make an impression on potential customers, this website needs to look the part, which means that you probably shouldn’t undertake the design of it yourself. There are plenty of companies out there that can help you with this, but it’s better to choose a local one rather than one that’s on the other side of the globe. So, as you’re in Manchester, a WordPress agency in Manchester will fit the bill perfectly as you could contact them easily or even pop into their office for a chat.
#3 Blogging online
If you prefer to be a bit less hands-on, then blogging could be for you. There’s no shortage of subjects to discuss in and around Manchester, and as a well-populated area, no shortage of people to read it, either. This works best as a side hustle if you monetise your website with advertising.
This might seem like a lot of work, but providing your content is in an acceptable niche, having Google Ads on your site could provide you with some ‘tick over’ money until you have enough of an audience that advertisers start approaching you.
Final thoughts
In this day and age, it’s no surprise that people are looking for a side hustle to top up their income. There are plenty of opportunities online, and affiliate marketing and blogging can provide you with modest rewards for your efforts. If you want to take things a little more seriously though, your own e-commerce store has the potential to be not only more lucrative but also scalable to the point where it could replace your current 9–5.