When considering which side hustle(s) to take up, you should consider if it’s something you would enjoy doing, if it pays well per hour, and perhaps if it could be scaled up into your own business or self-employment situation.
In this article I want to share 6 side hustle ideas that can be fun to do, appealing to different interests and niches. When picking these 6 ideas I also made sure these are side hustles that have high hourly pay so that you can make the most out of your time. Also, all of these ideas can be expanded into your own business or can be turned into full-time self-employment.
Since there are so many articles and videos online offering the same side hustle ideas over and over again, I wanted to do something different and focus on side hustles that may not have crossed your mind. Hopefully, you can find something new on this list that resonates with you.
1. Free Tour Guide
As someone who travels a lot, I have witnessed first hand the success and popularity of free tours.
Free tour guides are often enthusiastic locals who love showing their city around to visitors. They offer more unique experiences that allow tourists to get a more local feel to a place. Free tours often have a more friendly vibe to them and are a great way to meet fellow travelers. Moreover, they are free, which is why people often prefer them overpaid tours.
It’s not difficult to be a free tour guide. All you need is knowledge of your own city and a passion for sharing it with others.
Of course, you may have to market yourself through social media or on websites like Tripadvisor and Yelp, but you can also join others who have already organized free tours.
At this point, you may be thinking “this sounds fun and all but how do you make money if your tours are free?”. Well, there are two ways.
The first is that you can make money from tips. Travelers often tip very well to say thank you for giving a great tour. If you create value for people and offer it for free, most people would be happy to tip you to show their gratitude. It would be a bit rude not to tip your free tour guide if they were friendly and did a great job.
The second way to make money from free tours is to get local businesses to sponsor you in return for driving traffic to their businesses. If you develop a walking itinerary, you can show tourists the local businesses that are sponsoring your tour. This way, not only are you able to monetize your tour, but you also give tourists a more local feel to the city when you show them local places they may otherwise not have encountered if they stuck to more mainstream tourist routes. It’s a win for you, it’s a win for the local businesses, and it’s a win for the tourists.
What’s good about this side hustle is that you can scale it into a larger operation and build a business out of it. If you decide to market your free tours online, you could build a brand for yourself and generate higher demand. Eventually, you would have to get other people to help out to fulfill the demand, allowing you to become the manager of your own free tours business.
2. Photography
Photography may sound simple, but it can pay several hundred dollars per hour.
People sometimes desire quality pictures that they don’t think they can get by themselves. This means that if you want to make money from photography you need to be able to offer a high-quality experience.
I would recommend you get a professional camera (which usually costs a few hundred dollars) and learn Adobe Photoshop. Most people have cameras themselves so they would only pay a photographer for high-quality shots. That includes shooting with professional equipment, editing with photoshop, and spending the time to perfect different poses or shots. You can even make it more professional by buying lighting equipment and background screens.
There are many different niches of photography you can focus on, such as portrait photography, business photography, house/apartment photography, fashion photography, etc. You can specialize in one of these, or you can be a generalist since all of these niches require the same skillset.
Photography can also be a seasonal side hustle. For example, when it’s graduation season, you can do graduation photography. When its fashion week in your city, you can focus on fashion photography.
There are so many different routes you can take with photography that it’s a very fun and flexible side hustle. If you build a brand for yourself online, you can also be a full-time photographer if it’s something you love. You may also be able to turn it into photography business and get other people on board if you get enough demand. There are many possibilities for this opportunity.
3. Videography
Videos are powerful. More so than static photos.
In order to be a videographer, you would need a video camera, and know how to use video editing software. Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro are two popular video editing software applications for more professional edits. They have more capabilities than free video editing programs like iMovie. However, if the videos you are making are pretty simple, iMovie would do just fine.
There are two ways you can monetize your videography hustle.
First, just like you can make money taking photos for people, you can likewise make money filming and editing videos for people. There is a growing demand for skilled videographers since videos are such a powerful medium. You could be making a recruitment video for a college fraternity or sorority, you could create a promotional video for a business, you could be shooting a music video for a music artist, etc. Helping others create videos, whether if you’re filming it, editing it, or both, is a very viable side hustle and you can scale it into a business.
Second, you can also make money by making your own videos and monetizing it. The most obvious way to do this is to post your videos on YouTube and earn money from the YouTube Partner Program. YouTube shares 55% of the ad revenue from a video to the content creator and keeps the other 45%. The caveat to this is that in order to join the YouTube Partner Program, you need at least 1000 subscribers and 4000 public watch hours within the past 12 months. Working towards and achieving this goal would allow you to take advantage of a potentially lucrative opportunity. You can also monetize your own videos in other ways, such as licensing it out or selling the rights to the videos. Videos you make are your intellectual property, and you can monetize it however you see fit.
Of course, many videographers do both: they have YouTube channels for themselves, and they also make videos for others. This is, in fact, the best way to build a brand for yourself, since in order to gain clients for your videography business you need to be able to build a portfolio and demonstrate your past work.
Videography can become a full-time hustle if you become successful enough, whether through creating videos for others or creating your own videos that you monetize. If you build a big enough name for yourself you might even get enough business to hire a whole videography crew or even transition into filmmaking.
4. DJ
If you love music, especially of the party variety, this one is for you.
Being a DJ allows you to have fun and make money at the same time. You get to create your mixes and playlists and watch them light up a crowd and see everyone have a good time.
Getting DJ equipment and learning the basics is fairly straightforward. You can market yourself online to build a name for yourself, and you get to meet a lot of cool people who host different events and parties.
Obviously there are different music genres for different crowds, so keep that in mind. When being a DJ you should calibrate your music choices to the people and type of event you’re DJ-ing for.
5. Modeling
Modeling can also be a pretty fun side hustle. You get to travel, meet a lot of cool people, and potentially gain some fame for yourself.
If you want to pursue modeling full-time, definitely sign up for a modeling agency. Modeling agencies work with brands to provide them with models. The agencies also represent and promote the models that sign with them, helping them gain business and exposure.
However, modeling agencies do expect their models to show up to a lot of casting calls and auditions, and that could become too time-consuming for those who are just doing it as a side hustle.
For freelance models, getting clients from Instagram is a pretty common strategy. There is also a site called Newbook that connects models with both clients and agencies and is very popular with freelance models in particular.
6. Sports Official
Another side hustle where you can make money and have fun at the same time is being a sports official (referee, umpire, etc.).
Every level of sport requires a referee or umpire. Whether it’s for youth league, middle school, high school, college, or at the professional level, all games and matches need sports officials to make sure everyone is following the rules of the game.
If you love a particular sport, you can sign up to referee or umpire for it. Not only do you get to earn extra money, but you also have fun getting to watch a game for free and helping others enjoy the sport you love.
Also, most games happen outside of regular working hours, so it is ideal for a side hustle.
If you manage to become a sports official at the professional level, you can make quite a lot of money. NFL referees make over $200,000 a year, and what they’re doing is just part-time.
I believe there are few things more fulfilling in life than finding something you love to do and being able to make a living (or fortune) out of it. I hope this article inspired you with unique ideas on how to make money on the side doing something you enjoy. If you do well enough you can even scale your side hustle into a full-time business or self-employment situation.
There are many possibilities with all of these side hustles, and the only way to find out how far it can take you is to start.
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