The 14 Best Side Hustle Ideas to Make $500+ in Your Spare Time

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Every side hustle starts with an idea—but finding the right one can be overwhelming!

This curated list of proven side hustle ideas is designed to help you find opportunities that match your skills, schedule, and income goals.

Whether you’re looking to earn an extra $500 a month or build a six-figure business, you’ll find realistic options backed by real-world success stories.

What makes this list different:

Experience-backed recommendations — Built from 20+ years of entrepreneurial experience and interviews with 600+ successful side hustlers on The Side Hustle Show.

Community-vetted ideas — Refined through feedback from 50,000+ Side Hustle Nation members.

Scalable income potential — These side hustles can earn anywhere from $500 to $50,000+ per month depending on your commitment and execution.

Each idea below includes specific platforms, realistic income expectations, and links to detailed case studies showing exactly how others have succeeded.

The Best Side Hustles

Table of Contents show 

1. Online Surveys

These won’t make you rich, but can be an easy way to supplement your income and you can do them in your downtime (waiting in line, watching TV, etc.).

If you love this stuff, check out:

Swagbucks – Earn up to $35 a survey with this mega-popular app, and get a $10 bonus just for signing up!

KashKick – Get paid to answer surveys, test games, and try new products.

Survey Junkie – Take 3 surveys a day and earn up to $40 a month.

Product Report Card – Get notified about higher-paying product tests, clinical trials, and online focus groups.

InboxDollars – Get a $5 bonus just for signing up!

American Consumer Opinion – Join millions of free members and earn up to $50 per survey.

2. Rental Properties

Real estate investing is one of the oldest and most popular side hustles in the books … but houses are expensive!

Thankfully, new platforms like Arrived make it easy to invest in income-generating properties—with as little as $100.

Hands-Off Rentals

Arrived | Cash Flowing Rentals

 4.5

Pros:

Earn quarterly dividends

Completely hands-off

Low minimum investment ($100)

Cons:

Limited liquidity

Not super diversified

Listings can sell out quickly

Arrived | Cash Flowing Rentals

Learn More

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arrived hassle-free real estate

The company pools money to buy rental properties, manages them, and then distributes the cash flow every month.

I also liked Austin Miller’s creative approach to building his rental portfolio, which was up to 17 properties worth $1.2 million when we spoke.

The kicker? They were all acquired “free”—without any of his own money.

3. Customer Interviews

Many companies use customer interviews to get feedback on new products.

Best Overall

UserInterviews.com

UserInterviews.com

 4.1

Earn $50-150/hr, with thousands of new studies added each month.

Join for Free

Best for Industry Pros

Respondent

Respondent

 4.1

Earn an average of $95 per project, and get notified of upcoming studies you may qualify for.

Join for Free

Best for Medical Research

Rare Patient Voice

Rare Patient Voice

 4.5

Patients and caregivers can earn $120/hour while helping advance medical research.

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User Interviews and Respondent.io are a pair of cool services that facilitate those interviews online and over the phone.

user interviews

The best part? The average compensation is $50-150 an hour!

Here are some other companies that facilitate focus groups and paid research studies.

4. Part-Time Remote Work

With legit jobs ranging from entry-level to executive and freelance to full-time, FlexJobs is the leading work from home jobs site.

Side Hustle Nation Approved

FlexJobs: #1 For Remote Jobs

 4.7

The best place to find legit work from home jobs. Established in 2007, FlexJobs has 1000s of listings including part-time, full-time, and freelance options in tons of industries.

FlexJobs: #1 For Remote Jobs

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At press time, there were more than 100,000 openings in dozens of career categories.

flexjobs homepage

They charge a nominal monthly fee to access their listings, but you’ll easily earn it back (and then some!) with one job.

Check out our Flexjobs review to learn more.

5. Reselling Furniture Returns

Reselling furniture returns is a unique low-risk side hustle.

How it works is you join Sharetown as a local “reverse logistics” rep. Sharetown partners with direct-to-consumer mattress and furniture brands to handle their return requests.

When customers decide they don’t want to keep the item, you’ll get dispatched to go pick it up.

become a sharetown rep

After that, you’ll clean it up, photograph it, and list it for resale on sites like Facebook Marketplace.

The Sharetown reps I’ve connected with target $150-250 per flip — and the kicker is you don’t have to pay Sharetown for the inventory until the item sells.

Check out my full Sharetown review to learn more.

YouTube video

Side Hustle Nation Approved

Become a Sharetown Rep

 4.0

Sharetown reps make money by reselling gently-used furniture and bed-in-a-box mattresses. Top reps earn $4000+ per month.

Pros:

Low startup costs

Great earning power

No hunting for inventory

Cons:

Requires a truck or SUV

Bulky items to store

Not available in all areas

Become a Sharetown Rep

Apply Now

Our Sharetown Review

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6. Vending Machines

Mike Hoffmann’s vending machine empire earns thousands of dollars a month in profits.

His advice was to get modern machines, and find locations with either 100 residential units or workplaces with 100 employees.

how to start a vending machine business

7. Flipping Items for Profit

The art of buying low and selling high is a super popular side hustle, and a very common option to start making extra money.

You can start by offloading items you have around the house, and then look for profitable inventory at:

Yard sales

Garage sales

Estate sales

Thrift stores

Flea markets

Facebook Marketplace

If you love the thrill of the treasure hunt, this could be a great side hustle for you.

For example, my friends Rob and Melissa Stephenson consistently earn thousands of dollars a month, flipping items part-time!

flea market flipping

They put together this free training on how to get started and make your first sales in as little as 2 weeks.

Side Hustle Nation Approved

Free Flipping Workshop

 4.5

Pros:

Low startup costs

Simple business model

Can multiply money quickly

Cons:

Can be time-consuming to source inventory

Difficult to store and ship bulky items

Free Flipping Workshop

Join the Free Workshop

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Suggested Playlist: Flipping Profits

Buying low and selling high is the fastest way to multiply money. Here's how to get it done.

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8. Freelance Your Skills

One of the best side hustles to start with is freelancing. You can get started for almost nothing and use the skills you already have.

In fact, more Side Hustle Show guests started with a freelance or service business than any other business model!

Some popular ideas include:

Bookkeeping — Virtual bookkeepers can earn $60 an hour or more.  

Web design — Ryan Golgosky reported earning up to $100k a month from his unique web design business.

Freelance writing — Make $100-$500+ per article. Check out the 9-Step Blueprint to Making Money as a Writer for more.

Software consulting — Is there a software product you’re a relative expert in?

Photo organizing — Get paid $100 an hour to sort other people’s pictures.

Graphic design

Photography

Personal training

After you take inventory of your skills, think of how you might connect with your target customers. This could be:

around your neighborhood

in Facebook groups

through online marketplaces like Fiverr or Upwork

9. Selling Printables and Spreadsheets

I’m a fan of side hustles that let me get paid over and over again from work I do once, and printables definitely fits that bill.

By uploading digital files to Etsy, you can reach a wide audience of buyers—without having to fulfill individual orders.

etsy printables

Rachel Jones reported earning $10,000 a month from her portfolio of Etsy printables. Examples might include habit trackers, meal plans, budget templates, chore charts, intake forms, and more.

Here are some bestselling product ideas to get you started.

Similarly, Emily McDermott reported earning $250,000 in her first two years of selling spreadsheets on Etsy.

10. Local Service Business

Starting a local service business is a low startup cost way to make extra money.

Examples include:

Window cleaning — Johnny Robinson built his window cleaning business to $700k a year — while a full-time college student.

Pressure washing — Earn $3,000-$4,000 a month part-time, and break even on your startup costs after just 1-2 jobs.

Yard work — As a teenager, Jack Fleming built his lawn care business to $70k in profit!

Pet waste removal — It’s a dirty job, but can pay up to $50 an hour.

Mobile car detailing — Get clients in bunches at office parks, shopping malls, schools, sporting events, and other places where people (and their cars) like to gather.

Parking lot cleanup — Brian Winch turned “America’s simplest business” into a $600k a year income stream.

Knife sharpening — Every house in the country is a potential repeat customer!

Junk hauling — This is a great side hustle business if you already have access to a pickup truck or van.

Home organization — After you’re done Marie Kondo-ing your own place, maybe others would hire you to “spark joy” in theirs.

Spotify_Logo_RGB_Black-removebg-preview

Suggested Playlist: Local Business Ideas

Money is already flowing through your city, town, and neighborhood. Here are some actionable ways to get it flowing to YOU!

Add to Spotify

If you can apply some modern digital marketing, you’ll be able to build a profitable side hustle.

11. Rideshare and Delivery Apps

Lyft or Uber have become synonymous with side hustles. Starting a rideshare or delivery side hustle is easy and straightforward.

In most cases, you’ll just need to:

Have reliable transportation (car, bike, electric scooter, etc.)

Be 18 or older

Complete a background check

Your earning power is typically in the $14-25 per hour range, and you can set your own schedule.

A lesser-known option is HopSkipDrive, which specializes in safe and transparent school transportation for kids. My retired neighbor reported earning around $100 a day doing this in his spare time.

hopskipdrive

HopSkipDrive currently operates in select metro areas, but is rapidly expanding to new cities.

Requirements:

At least 21 years old.

Caregiving experience with children.

Background check; good driving record.

4-door vehicle under 15 years old. (In DC, MD, PA, Minneapolis, and Seattle, vehicle must be no more than 10 years old.)

If you don’t like the idea of driving other people around, here are some delivery apps to consider:

Instacart – Pick up and deliver groceries around town. Check out our full Instacart shopper review for more.

DoorDash – Deliver takeout orders. For more, check out our full DoorDash review.

Uber Eats – Deliver takeout meals like my friend Jason, who reported earning $25-30 an hour.

Pros:

Easy to get started

No marketing or sales required

Can earn money quickly

Cons:

Limited earning power

Wear and tear on your vehicle

Income may be inconsistent

12. Niche Newsletter

One of the side hustles I’m excited about right now is curated email newsletters. Could you source the best articles on your topic of choice on a daily or weekly basis?

These are super valuable for readers since you help cut through the clutter in your niche. As your audience grows, you can monetize with ads, affiliate offers, or your own products or services.

Tools like Substack and SendFox make it super easy to get started.

13. Local Rental Business

High school teacher Steve Nadramia began renting out portable hot tubs, and now does $1000s a month in bookings.

These types of “unconventional” rental businesses are exciting because the return on investment is so much higher than traditional real estate. For example, in Steve’s case, he might buy a hot tub for $2000, and rent it out for $400-500 a month.

25 Other Unconventional Rental Ideas

What else could you rent out for a profit? Here are some ideas!

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14. Tutoring

Put your education to use helping students learn in a comfortable one-on-one setting. WyzAnt is one of the largest marketplaces in the online tutoring world, where you can set your own rates.

In this post, Matt Fuentes shared how he built his tutoring business up to $1,000 a week.

15. Get Paid to Play Mobile Games

Most Ways to Earn

Swagbucks

A Strong Newcomer

KashKick

An Android Fave

Cash Giraffe

Swagbucks

KashKick

Cash Giraffe

 4.4

 4.1

 4.3

Swagbucks has paid out over $550 million to users over the last 10+ years.

Get paid to test new games, complete offers, and answer short surveys.

Discover games, earn "gems", and cash out for gift cards.

Sign Up Here

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If you already love playing mobile games, this is probably the easiest way for you to make extra money.

Several apps will pay you to download and try out new games, and you can earn more by reaching certain milestones within a specified period of time.

A Strong Newcomer

KashKick

 4.2

Free

Get paid to test new games, complete offers, and answer short surveys.

KashKick

Sign Up Free

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Where does the money come from? These apps get paid by game developers who want to get new users to play their games. The apps then share a portion of that money with you