6 Realistic Side Hustles You Can Do Remotely in 2024

Author

Ark
November 18, 2024

Discover Six Lucrative Side Hustles You Can Do Remotely and On Your Own Terms

6 remote side hustles to diversify your income streams and break free from the 9–5 grind! Find out which one is the perfect fit for your skills and interests.

I’m going to share with you six side hustles that you can do remotely. Look, I hate to break it to you, and I’m sure you already know this, but your job doesn’t care about you. If business gets difficult, like it did during the COVID-19 pandemic, when there were mass layoffs, your job has no problem letting you go because you’re just a number to them. So, it’s obviously not smart for you to put all your eggs in one basket and be fully dependent on just one income stream—your job. And so, if there’s one thing that you do this year, I want you to get a side hustle. And even better, if it’s a side hustle you can do from anywhere, on your own time,. I want you to figure out which one is best for you according to these three criteria: one, what is it that you love doing; two, what is it that you are really good at; and last but not least, what is it that people will actually pay good money for?

I know a lot of these side hustle videos on YouTube are all about how much money you can make, but I actually kind of disagree with that because, of course, the money is important, but ultimately, if you don’t enjoy doing something or you don’t have a natural talent for it, then you’re not really going to ever get to the point where you can even make that much money because you’ll either get sick of it or you’re just going to fail. So, whenever I coach people on how to make more money, I always take them through this Venn diagram, and whatever is in that sweet spot at the intersection of all three is the side hustle where you’re likely to make the most money and have fun doing it.

Alright, so the first side hustle that you can do remotely is writing, and more specifically, I’m referring to direct response copywriting. Direct response copywriting is a very specific type of writing that businesses use to drive customers to take a certain action. So, if you’ve ever bought something online or signed up for a free newsletter, it’s likely that you read something written by a direct response copywriter that drove you to take action. Going back to that Venn diagram that we talked about earlier, is this something people will pay for? And the answer is definitely yes, because, think about it—businesses need to drive their customers to take action and make purchases. The work that direct response copywriters do is extremely important; it directly impacts revenue, and so businesses will pay top dollar for really good copywriting. And really, the sky’s the limit here.

For some real-life examples, I pay a direct response copywriter in my business. She’s on a monthly retainer for $2,000 a month, and that’s only for 20 hours of work a week, so that’s $100 an hour. And I’ve also hired direct response copywriters for more short-term projects and paid a flat fee of $8,000 to $12,000 for a project spanning about 3 months. And then, if you’re really at the top of your game and you want to make the big bucks, I was recently at a mastermind where one of the guest speakers was a very in-demand direct response copywriter. She is most famous for having written a $400 million sales page. And so, the best of the best, like that, they usually actually charge a profit share percentage of the sales that directly come from their direct response copywriting. So, to succeed as a direct response copywriter, you obviously need to be good at writing. I think you do need a natural talent for writing. You don’t need to know direct response copywriting, but at least to have a sense for how to communicate with words because, really, if you’re good at this, you can turn words into money.

As for how to learn direct response copywriting specifically, I recommend starting with books that teach you how to communicate persuasively, such as “Influence” by Robert Cialdini. And if you really want to take this seriously, I recommend learning from the best of the best. I’ll link to the online course that Sarah, the $400 million sales page girl, put together, so you can check that out below in the description. And then, the third piece of the Venn diagram is what you love to do, and I really think to succeed at this, you need to love human psychology, like understanding the emotional triggers that make people buy and want to take action.

As for how to get clients, it’s kind of like any sort of side hustle that you start where you need to get clients at first. You need to put together a portfolio to show that you actually know what you’re doing and that you’re good, and then a lot of it is just outreach from there. I recommend cold outreach, where you find a list of businesses or influencers online that you admire, read their copy, see what type of content they’re putting out, and then send them an email pitching your services. And to really get noticed, make sure you really tailor that email to their business. Don’t make it some sort of generic email that you just mass send out to a bunch of businesses. Really show that you’ve studied their business and that you think you can help them. That really goes a long way. Of course, you’re going to get a lot of rejections and a lot of people who won’t respond, but if you do enough outreach, you are going to get some hits. To really increase your chances of getting noticed, I would also either offer your services at a discount, at least in the beginning, for them to try you out, or even offer something for free—a sample of work—so they can test you out risk-free.

Another way you can start getting clients is by putting up a profile on Upwork and Fiverr. Just make sure you put up a really good portfolio of your past work, and in the beginning, your portfolio can just be samples of writing that you did on your own, whether it was for a paid client or not. I will say it’s the hardest to get clients in the beginning, but once you get the ball rolling, most businesses hire direct response copywriters through word of mouth. That’s actually how I found all of my copywriters. So, once you get the ball rolling and you’re good and your clients are happy, from there, it’s going to get a lot easier to get work.

The second side hustle idea is being a virtual assistant. A virtual assistant is a remote professional who provides tech support, operational support, admin support, or even creative support to small businesses and solopreneurs like me. There is definitely a huge demand for virtual assistants due to technology, due to the fact that most businesses have some sort of online presence these days, and because we’re all just getting busy and need a lot of help.

If you are really good at being detail-oriented, you’re a really good communicator, you’re super organized, and you know how to figure things out quickly, you would make an amazing virtual assistant. You definitely also need to be tech-savvy. As for the third criteria, if this is something people will pay for, the demand for virtual assistance is only increasing. As a real-life example, I pay my virtual assistant $45 an hour, and she helps me with everything.

She’s definitely not going anywhere. As for how to get started as a virtual assistant, I have a couple of recommendations. The first is that you really need to decide what type of virtual assistant you’re going to be, because there are many types. There are virtual assistants that specialize in social media or marketing. There are also virtual assistants who only do accounting, bookkeeping, and admin work. There’s also a VA that has more of an executive assistant role, so they help with scheduling and managing email inboxes for busy professionals.

So, I say the first place to start is to sort of narrow down what type of VA you want to be. To get your first few clients as a virtual assistant, I recommend not even bothering with the freelance marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr. It’s just too competitive there; you won’t get noticed. I actually recommend starting with an agency. I’ll link to the one that I personally use for my business. I’ve had a good experience with them. But what’s good about these VA agencies is that they will train you and bring clients to you, and of course, they’ll take a cut of your earnings, but it’s a great way to get started. And eventually, if you’re good enough and build up a rapport with that client, you could even ask that client to buy out your contract with the agency and then just work for them directly. And then, from there, like anything else, word-for-word, you’ll get more and more clients.

One pro-tip piece of advice if you want to be a VA is to really get specialized in certain software and skills. The more specialized you are in something, the more you stand out. And now, for the third side hustle, this one’s a little different from the first two that we just talked about in the sense that it’s something that you can do on your own time and you don’t need clients. And this is option trading. Options trading as a side hustle is something that I talked about in this video here. Specifically, it’s trading options, but in a very particular way in order to generate a consistent side income.

Without getting into the weeds about what options are, basically, you can think of options as stocks. You know you can buy and sell stocks for a profit. Well, you can also buy and sell options and make a profit as well. There are two types of options: call options and put options. And unlike stock trading, where it’s really hard to make a consistent profit, it’s a lot easier to generate consistent income through options trading if you use a specific strategy called high probability spread trading. Now, I have a whole master class where I go over this in detail. I’ll link to it below. Basically, it’s a style of options trading where you trade only high-probability strike prices. That means in advance, you already know which trades have a high probability of succeeding, and the moment you trade this option, you actually get paid for it upfront. And then later on, as long as the stock doesn’t move within a certain range, you get to keep that money.

You definitely need to have somewhat of an interest in the stock market and sort of financial things in order to enjoy options trading, but it’s definitely a very intellectually stimulating side hustle that I personally enjoy. And in order to be good at it, if you just get over the learning curve and you’re good at managing your emotions—all the emotions that come with trading, things that go up and down—you’re going to be really good at this. As for whether this is something that people will pay for, what I like about this side hustle is that you don’t need clients. This is something you can do on your own. There’s no boss, and there’s no client to report to. This is just you opening your laptop and doing your trades.

As for how much you can earn doing this, personally, I make up to $1,000 a month doing this, and this is with not even one hour a week. And I also have a lot of students who are finding a lot of success making an income with this side hustle. Once again, check out my free master class if you’re interested in diving deeper into this.

Another side hustle idea for you is being a content creator. A content creator is basically where you pick a platform, whether it’s a podcast platform, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, or YouTube, and you create content in the form of videos or photos, and then you monetize that content in various ways. One of the most popular ways content creators monetize their content is that the platform might actually pay you. So, YouTube and TikTok have these creator payouts where the more views you get or the more likes you get, the more money you get. Another way to monetize is through affiliate income. So, in your content, you can talk about a product that you like, link to your affiliate link, and then get a commission for people who buy through your link.

Now, I’m not the best example because I don’t make that much affiliate income, but a really good example is my friend Charlie Chang, who makes over six figures a month in affiliate income just from his YouTube channel. Another popular way that content creators monetize is through brand deals. And this is where a company reaches out to you and says, “Hey, if you talk to your audience about our product in a piece of content, then we’ll pay you a flat fee for that.” I’ve gotten anywhere from $10,000 to $70,000. So, really, the sky’s the limit with this one. It just depends on how engaged an audience you can build and how creative you can be with your content.

As for the three criteria, you have to enjoy brainstorming content ideas, and I definitely think you have to enjoy whatever topic it is that you’re posting about. As for what you need to be good at, I think if you just understand human psychology and understand what makes people want to watch your content, then you’re going to be really good at this. As for what people are willing to pay for, well, the proof is in the pudding. Like I said, I’ve gotten up to $70,000 in a brand deal, and that’s not even scratching the surface of what other creators are getting paid for brand deals.

And yeah, the sky is really the limit with this one. And if you’re an ultimate content creator like, say, Mr. Beast, you can even sell your own product, like his chocolates, and he probably makes millions with that. Next up, side hustle idea number five is being a video editor. According to GWI data from the past year, 92.8% of internet users are watching online videos weekly. Not only this, but 86% of companies rely on video marketing. And if that’s not enough to persuade you, overall employment for film and video editors, camera operators, or anything of that nature related to video is expected to rise 7% from 2023 to 2032, which is a faster growth rate than the average for all occupations, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As for how much you can make doing this, I personally pay my video editor $2,000 a month to edit four videos for me. Personally, I found my first video editor on Upwork. I liked his portfolio, I thought his hourly rate was reasonable, and he had good reviews. So, really, if you just have a strong profile with a portfolio that shows what you can do, then you are definitely in a good position to get clients. That really is the key to any sort of freelance client work: to first build up a portfolio. You need to first get good enough.

As for how to do that, well, I used to edit my own videos for the whole first year of my YouTube channel. I am really bad at tech, so if I figure it out, you can also figure it out. There’s a ton of free online tutorials on how to edit videos on every software, from DaVinci Resolve to iMovie to Final Cut Pro to Adobe Premiere.

And here’s a pro tip: if you really want to rise up as a video editor and build your clientele quickly, I suggest specializing in being a video editor for one specific type of video. So, a really good place to start would be being a video editor for YouTube because there’s a very specific style of editing that increases viewer retention, and YouTubers love a video editor who is good at editing specifically for YouTube.

You just want to go where the money is, right? So, another place is doing direct response video editing. So, remember what I talked about with direct response copywriting? There are special types of videos called video sales letters, and these are basically sales pages in video form. If you know how to edit good video sales letters, then you can definitely charge top dollar for that.

As for the three criteria, you need to have a visual brain and know how to communicate things visually. You also need to be good at meeting deadlines and keeping all of your video files organized. If you enjoy being creative and doing something visual, you’ll probably love being a video editor.

And then we have bookkeeping. Bookkeeping is basically where you do basic accounting for small businesses to help them keep accurate financial records. Bookkeeping is really important because at the end of every year, all businesses have to file their taxes, and their accountants are going to ask them for their profit and loss, their balance sheet, and all the nitty-gritty details. And it’s the bookkeeper who keeps the records for the business all year.

Businesses are always going to need to file their taxes and know their numbers, so bookkeeping is always going to be in demand. Now, this is not something a lot of people know about, but I actually used to freelance as a bookkeeper, and at one point, I was billing up to $6,000 a month spread out among eight different clients.

Basically, if you like numbers, you love working in spreadsheets, and you prefer, in general, not talking to people and just crunching away numbers into your spreadsheet, then you are going to love being a bookkeeper. What I like about this is that it’s fairly easy. It can get a little bit intellectual and numbers-based, but for the most part, a lot of it is very repetitive, and if you use good accounting software like QuickBooks, Xero, or FreshBooks, a lot of the transactions will get categorized automatically, saving you a bunch of work.

Another thing I like about this is that if you can get clients on retainer, it becomes really steady, and most clients will never switch their bookkeeper. I’ve been with the same bookkeeper for years and have no intention of ever switching because she’s doing a really good job, and I’d rather not rock the boat every year because I need to be ready for tax season.

As for how to get started, personally, when I was doing bookkeeping—this is just for a couple of years in my 20s—I got started on Upwork. I put up a profile, and by the next day, I had my first client. And the reason I was able to get my first client so quickly is because I specified a very specific accounting software that I was good at, and that was Buildium, which is a bookkeeping software specifically for real estate companies. And because I was specialized, I had a niche, and I wrote up a really strong profile, I had a lot of clients hitting me up. It wasn’t that hard for me to get my first client.

Even outside of Upwork, like I said, businesses all need bookkeepers, so another thing you can do is just approach small businesses in your neighborhood or small businesses that you follow online and ask them if they need a bookkeeper, tell them your rates, and have them try you out. I know from personal experience that most business owners are extremely stressed about this area of their business. A lot of them avoid their numbers and really need an organized bookkeeper to come in and clean up their finances for them. So honestly, if you think you have the skills to be a good bookkeeper, I think it’ll be fairly easy to build up a fairly regular clientele and make a couple of thousand dollars a month doing this.

On YouTube, Tiffany Higgins is a virtual bookkeeper. She started out making $5,000 a month and scaled to $20,000 a month in just three years, and she only works 30 to 35 hours a week. So all of these side hustles definitely require a little bit of effort to get started, but once you get them going, they all have the potential to provide you with an income that you can control anytime, anywhere. And like I said, your job doesn’t care about you, so you might as well start putting something into place so you can be less dependent on one job and start creating more flexible, diverse streams of income.

That’s it for this video. I really hope you enjoyed it and got something out of it. Please consider liking and subscribing, and until then, I will see you next week at the same time and place. Bye!