I'm Christina Lyon, a coffee sipping, piano playing, beach loving, word-obsessed freelance writer and musician. I'm on fire for helping freelance writers get paid and small biz owners succeed online. When I'm not reading or writing, I play music and explore the beaches and wild trails along the California coast.

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7 Side Hustle Jobs From Home To Start Now

Christina Lyon

Do you want to work from home? Sick of clocking in to a 9-5 and reporting to a superior? Then it’s time to build your remote empire and master one (or more) of these side hustle jobs from home.

There are 57 million freelancers working remotely in the United States. What’s stopping you from being one of them? Truth is, more and more people are looking for lucrative side hustle jobs from home.

I’ll admit it: I’m old fashioned. I enjoy going to the market to buy my groceries, holding a hardcover book in my hands, and window shopping. As more and more businesses move online, nostalgics and purists like me have thrown up our hands while reminiscing about the days of yore. Truth is, it’s hard to adapt to the rapidly changing times. And I’m only in my early thirties! Still, I can’t deny the lucrative prospect of working from home!

Side hustle job ideas used to include babysitting or delivering food. Now? The potential to work from home is limitless. The great thing about this digital era we live in is that the bounds of convention are stretching wider every year, allowing freelancers like me to slip through and build our businesses online. Turns out, freelance writing is one of several lucrative online side hustles on the rise.

I personally started blogging in 2016, which turned into a freelance writing side hustle which turned into my full-time job. Not a wordsmith? No worries!

Here’s a look at 7 online side hustle jobs from home to start building NOW.

1. Freelance Writing, Blogging, and Copywriting

The sound of my fingers tapping my keyboard every day is a sweet reminder that I work from home. Is it a perfect job? No way. However, sometimes I feel major imposter syndrome. I have to pinch myself because all my clients are going to drop me any second because obviously this is not reality.

Fortunately, it is a reality! Every time I read an article or infographic about the projected stats of copywriting, I smile all wide and nerdy. It’s absolutely thrilling to me to see a field most scholars claim as “dead” is legitimately thriving. Investing in yourself as a freelance writer is a lucrative and wise decision!

Why? Businesses are going digital and they need copy for their websites, blogs, and marketing initiatives. Copywriting is an integral cornerstone of effective marketing. Businesses are learning that blogging consistently more than triples their sales! So, when these e-commerce companies need to hire a copywriter, who’s gonna land the gig?

If you build your side hustle up, it could be you! In fact, all you need to get started freelancing is *cue the flashing neon lights* a writing portfolio, which you can build from your published blog posts! Yassss, the power’s in your hands you just gotta grab it!

How do you start freelance writing? In the beginning, bid low rates to build your portfolio on freelance sites like Upwork or Fiverr. Alternatively, you can go the traditional route and cold pitch to companies on LinkedIn.

A work desk from home, when you master one of these side hustles from home, you get to enjoy the perks of working from home.

2. Digital Marketing

What is digital marketing? Gone are the brick and mortar methods of marketing via print ads, coupons, billboards, etc. Sure, these marketing techniques are still practiced today, but they are dwindling. Why? Savvy businesses have navigated across the channels of print advertising and into the digital marketing sphere.

Still sound vague? That’s because it is sort of an umbrella term. Digital marketing encompasses a multitude of avenues of driving sales to a website. Essentially, if a company wants to pimp their brand online, they’ve got to get their product in front of as many eyeballs as possible.

Digital marketing spans social media, email, SEO, etc. The general motive is to use the web to build an audience and convert that audience into customers. This is excellent news for potential remote workers with a skill for marketing.

Where do you come in?

You either specialize in digital marketing or are a newbie looking to build up your side hustle. How? Take e-courses, attend the college of Youtube, read blog posts, and position yourself as an authority on:

  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – On-page and off-page SEO aka you optimize web content for your clients to generate organic traffic and authority on search engines.
  • Content Marketing – Blog posts, infographics, articles, and educational writing via ebooks and whitepapers.
  • Email Marketing – Growing email lists for clients and companies, emailing customers, email outreach, and all things relating to promoting products via email.
  • Social Media Marketing – Pimping products on the gram, FB, Pinterest, Twitter, etc. It’s a thing. If you love social media, you gotta jump on the wagon of social media marketing. Personally, I thought I liked social media until I tried social media marketing and realized… “it’s a no for me”. I loathe social media, and am planning to offload this task to a freelancer *newbie side hustle alert and a prime example of why these side hustle jobs are in high demand*
  • Affiliate Marketing – Bloggers and brands pimp products on their website, when readers buy that product, the blogger or brand receives a commission.

Wait, wasn’t that 5 jobs I just listed? Yeah, it’s a perfect time to build up your digital marketing side hustle, as you can see the opportunities are ample!

3. E-Commerce

E-commerce is the way of the future: 60% of millennials buy online and online sales are predicted to increase by 15% every year. Now that’s a pie you want a slice of. In order to have an e-commerce store, you have to have a product. And in order to make sales, you have to market that product. Building an e-commerce store is no overnight task. However, if you master this skill, you can work from anywhere in the world and make money while you sleep.

It’s smart to invest in streams of passive income, because you can’t always be crushing it. Sometimes you need to sit back and let your hustle work for you. This isn’t to say that e-commerce doesn’t require tremendous work, because it does. Rather, once you’ve built your e-commerce empire, you tap into the pool of passive income.

4. Video Editing

Every time I browse freelance platforms like Upwork and LinkedIn, I repeatedly see a demand for video editing. Specifically, social media videos and Facebook and Instagram ad videos. Not only does it strike me how frequently I see these listings, but also what clients are paying. Why is video editing in high demand? Video editing is another effective form of digital marketing that converts to sales. Many clients have stock footage or in house footage they’ll send to a freelance video editor to produce short, 45-second to 1-minute advertising videos.

Additionally, the rise of the influencer has generated location-specific demand for video production for Youtube, as well as video editing. I personally know several travel bloggers who shoot a ton of footage en route and offload the daunting task of creating a viral-style video to a freelance editor.

5. Web Developing and Design

This one’s a no-brainer. If companies are going digital, where are they putting their business and products? Online. And what do they need to do that? A professional website.

Despite user-friendly web building platforms like Wix and Squarespace, no website is going to look as legit as a custom-designed one. While tech is now relatively universal, coding, design, and HTML development is still a highly specialized skill.

Mastering web development and building a web design portfolio is a great way to guarantee job security as more and more businesses move their brands online. I recently researched investing in a custom website and came across an established web designer whose packages START at 6K. Do they deserve it? Absolutely! This particular web designer spent nearly a decade building a freelance web design business and now knows the power of charging what they are worth. Guess how they started their business? As a side hustle. *Mind blown* Bottom line:

So long as the internet exists, the demand for web developing and web design will, too.

6. Graphic Design

Just as people need to hire web developers to create their websites, they also need design materials to establish and legitimize their brand. As such, graphic design is one of the most in-demand side hustle jobs from home. If you are versed in Photoshop and InDesign, why not turn that skill into cash?

Graphic design work includes crafting custom logos, creating advertising materials like flyers and newsletters, illustrating books and novels, and more. No two tasks will be the same, which means your work is interesting and inspiring.

Get started by creating an online portfolio to showcase your work, then start pitching on freelance websites to land your first clients.

7. Virtual Assistant

Perhaps you aren’t a tech-head at all and actually don’t like anything having to do with digital. Perhaps you are also an organizing expert with experience in clerical and administrative work? Then you need to get digital if you want to build your clientele. Offloading office tasks to a virtual assistant is the norm for online businesses.

If you excel at organization, email communication, digital filing, invoicing, billing, using online suites like Google and Microsoft, then you should look into becoming a virtual assistant. Of all the side hustle jobs from home in this post, VA work is the most accessible. It is also on the lower end of the pay scale but if you are a master VA, you can climb your way up and raise your rate with your relative work experience.

Regardless, virtual assistant jobs allow you the freedom to work from home, build a solid clientele, and make an income. At the very least, you’ll have a side hustle to craft and carve into a full-time income.

Ready to turn one of these side hustle jobs from home into your online empire?

To sum up: Although each job requires different skills, the model for building up your side hustle is applicable to each one.

  • Choose one of these side hustle jobs from home
  • Hone your craft
  • Create a portfolio to showcase your work (even if you haven’t gotten paid for any of it yet)
  • Start on freelancer sites to gain access to a broad collection of freelance job listings
  • Pitch with a lower rate to get clients
  • Take on more clients
  • Raise your rate
  • Turn your side hustle into your full-time job!

Will it require a lot of effort and time? Yes. Is it worth it? Hell yes, because:

Mastering one of these side hustle jobs from home will garner you the freedom to be location independent, make your own hours, set your rate, be your own boss, and build your online empire.

Not a bad gig, eh?

Before you go:

May 21, 2019

Freelancing Tips

*This post may contain affiliate links, and I may receive a commission on purchases made through provided links (at no extra cost to you).

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