I started working online when I was a wee high school dropout at 18 years old by teaching myself the bare minimum amount of code to build websites. As someone who grew up with a MySpace that totally rocked and had the best accessories and sidebar GIFs an internet girl could find, this came pretty quickly to me. And since then, a whole 13 years later since starting Stxrdust - I’ve tried every side hustle there is online that didn’t involve me having to take my clothes off and ruin my dignity for a lifetime. I’ve always known that the internet is forever and tried to be cautious where I could. My reputation precedes me and I’ve spent a long time ensuring people know me for my art and talents and contributions to the WWW - not my body. Anyways, I’ve tried tons of side hustles and I’m going to recount them here and rate them from how profitable and worth it they were to me and what I thought about each gig work opportunity.
Let’s start with Fiverr. Where I still have an account today and my most recent order was yesterday. I get infrequent gigs through Fiverr now and then. I have 10 services listed on the platform and most people only order through my top 3 offers - UGC, YouTube Thumbnails, and T-Shirt designs. If you were to create a Fiverr account and start earning from simple jobs like shooting video for a dog collar company, or designing a logo for a poetry writer - there is plenty of opportunity to grow on this app, if not expand your portfolio. I have over 70+ five star reviews from different customers all across the world. Some from Australia, to New Zealand, and even Egypt. Which I find really interesting to have such a diverse clientele reach out to me on there. I’d say it’s worth creating a profile, beefing up your gig descriptions, and starting with mid-tier pricing. I don’t charge only $5 for anything on this app, even though the domain is literally placing the freelancers in the cheapest bracket - you can actually charge whatever you want. So, in my area, you need to make $65/hr for a comfortable life. That’s what I set my hourly rate to, but I also created flat rate pricing for one-off services. You should charge high right out the gate, even if you have a small portfolio, because this way you can make a sustainable income from your work and stop the Starving Artist syndrome at the root.
Https://fiverr.com./stardustweb
Website design has changed so much over the years. I’ve had my ups and downs as a web designer for an entire decade. Some industries are easier to serve than others. If you’re going to offer website design services, work with brick and mortar businesses who already have customers and established brand presence but need an updated online experience. I did not do this and I risked my own financial security by working with entrepreneurs like coaches and creative types. Although these are more interesting people to work with, you’re often going to find yourself reinventing the wheel, or undercutting your prices, and working with the world’s biggest divas with the tiniest budgets for marketing. Not every project was like this but I spent many years working for nothing for musicians and speakers to look like rockstars online with Stxrdust was cast to the sidelines and sometimes even deemed irrelevant to the cause. These are my personal experiences though and everyone’s story is different. Website design can be rewarding so if you’re going to offer this type of work, I’d suggest selling templates in an online store. Don’t reinvent the wheel and start from scratch for every business. Sell the same template to tons of companies who can customize in-house or hire you at your firm rates to personalize their build for them. Cold calling, emailing and selling website design packages didn’t work that well for me, maybe especially because I’m not great at sales, nor talking on the phone - and to men who considered branding a useless investment. I wasted a lot of time trying to educate instead of stepping back and letting my own website work for me. So if you’re reading this, please learn from my mistakes and set many barriers between you and misaligned connections.
Now let’s talk about my personal favorite way to earn an extra income online: Print on Demand. As a creative person who has always liked wearing alternative fashion, I have designed over 1000 pieces of unique clothing for my store and many others. I don’t really consider myself a fashion designer though, because I’m mostly uploading my art onto premade products. Not actually sewing and cutting fabric. That could be in the works for the future when things change in the background for Stxrdust if we get into a warehouse situation soon. Print on demand lets you have unlimited creativity with your themed collections. I personally use Printify for supplying my store with hundreds of different products to create and attach my original art to. And if you’re designing for specific fandoms like I do, this can be a real sweet side hustle if you can capture those audiences and give them apparel they’d love to wear. I recommend creating unique patterns, sweaters with sleeve designs, and customizable blankets - personalizable products are the best because people will buy just about anything with their name/ birthdays/ zodiac signs, etc.
Finally, the most profitable online side hustle I've found so far where I have to work the least, yet have the most fun & earn a LOT for my creative efforts: UGC. User-Generated Content. This is the easiest way to make money online in my professional opinion as someone who has ADHD and a million different interests. All you need to do is make videos of products you love for brands that like to use custom content from their actual target audience. This kind of goes hand in hand with affiliate marketing sometimes where i will make a video about a product that can also be found on Amazon or Wal-Mart and that brand will pay for custom video assets that demo their products. This way you can compound your potential earnings from offering UGC as a service, selling the digital assets, posting on your professional profiles and sharing your affiliate links. Its a win for everyone involved. So long as youre genuinely promoting things you enjoy, actually use in your daily life and align with your core values. You can get started by offering UGC video work on Fiverr like I stated above. Or simply start pitching brands with a portfolio of your past work and example content. I have an ebook about getting started in UGC that shares templates, pitches, ideas, apps that pay for videos, and a planner. Download that here.
Other side hustles I’ve tried include:
- Affiliate marketing on my blog - 9/10 - I love writing these blogs and I’m trying to gain the energy back to write a new post every day, but at least once a week feels fulfilling enough at the moment. Adding in some Amazon products + other affiliate offers that revolve around the content I’m writing about make it worth the effort. I’m also adding Google AdSense so that I can get paid per view on my posts even if no one buys anything.
- Instacart and DoorDash - 2/10 - I have destroyed my car and met some of the worst neighbors using these delivery apps. And even though you can cash out immediately, the pay is inconsistent and your offers are based on the ratings your customers give you. So if you’re in a poor area, I wouldn’t risk your account on these apps with the low tippers. If you’re in the city, you can crush it no problem all day long. I wish the customers weren’t so cruel or else I’d love to do these easy jobs in my downtime from the blog.
- Amazon Flex - 3/10 - same as the delivery apps above, except you’ll be stuffing your car with hundreds of packages and stuck in that claustrophobic vehicle for hours. I did not like doing these delivery gigs because it would be 2 to 3 hours of straight driving with hundreds of stops. Not an enjoyable experience for me.
- Bartending - 1/10 - I can pour a beer but I don’t like being objectified at the workplace non-stop. Really annoying customers. And I stopped drinking so this is not a healthy environment for me to work in.
- DataAnnotation.com - I lost account access after only a few hours of working for the app and never got paid. Don’t recommend. 0/10
- UpWork.com - although I have had an account on here for a very long time, I’ve never once received a single opportunity on this app. You have to pay to apply to each gig with credits so I don’t like that process and I refuse to participate. 2/10
- Ebooks on Amazon - I have 1 ebook on Amazon and it’s sold a few times but now it’s super out of date. Maybe next I’ll try to sell notebooks with unique or weird as fuck covers instead. 5/10
- MLMs - Yes, I was in several multi-level marketing pyramid schemes as a teenager and young adult. I did learn some sales tactics but there’s no way I could bank on being dishonest about the products and lying to my down line about the wealth they’re accumulating for me. And it’s extremely risky to depend on MLMs when you have to buy into their cults and depend on the people below you for your income. That’s insane. I tried Beachbody, Cutco, Kannaway, and ItWorks! None worked for me but again, these are my experiences. 0/10
- Crypto - I really miss those days when we would freak about Bitcoin hitting $7k. And then Dogecoin almost went to the moon. We also saved GameStop along the way. We should collectively bet against corporations in the stock market again that was such good times. I’ve invested into Bitcoin and other alt coins and even some NFTs. I created a few NFTs also. But nothing went anywhere. I currently don’t HODL a single crypto coin. I’m not interested in gambling at the moment. But I do accept some payments in USDC on this site just for fun.
Do you have a side hustle that you’ve tried and it didn’t work out? Or maybe one of those side hustles became your main source of income and now it’s granted your freedom to do whatever you want! Share your story below, maybe you’ll be featured in an article or YouTube video on Stxrdust TV. Comment below.
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