working on side hustle using laptop

Side Hustle Ideas: Tried 5 to Make $1,000/Month (Only 2 Worked)

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Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Allow me to save you time and give you an insight: the majority of online recommendations for side hustles are terrible.

For nine months, I tried making an extra $1,000 a month. It wasn’t working out, and I had to try 5 different side hustles. 2 of them made me actual money. The other 3 made me nothing and were a complete waste of time.

So here’s what happened with each of them.

Side Hustle #1: Freelance Writing

  • Timeline: April-September 2024
  • Total Earned: $2,847 in 6 months
  • Hours Spent: Way too many

After telling me, “If you can write, you can make money online,” I tried out freelance writing.

Here is what I actually did.

  • I made profiles on Upwork and Fiverr.
  • In the first month, I applied for 60+ jobs.
  • I was rejected from most of them.
  • I landed my first client on week 3, and he paid me $35 for a 1,000-word article.

That first $35 took me like 4 hours to earn because I had to write, edit, and revise it. But whatever, it was a start. I built up to making $400 – $600 per month from payments over a period of 6 months. $680 was my best month in August. But here’s something about freelancing, and I bet no one is going to tell you: clients ghost you sometimes. One client paid me $200 a month and then disappeared and was unresponsive, just like that, no reason, no explanation, no nothing.

The hours were killer. I was just about done every day. I was up writing until midnight every day of the week.

Would I do this again? I would do this again only if you really enjoy the writing. The money really just isn’t worth the torture if writing is something you loathe.

freelance home office workspace
Freelancing as a popular side hustle

Side Hustle #2: Dropshipping (FAILED HARD)

  • Timeline: May – July 2024
  • Money Earned: -$340 (yes, a negative)
  • Hours: Embarrassing to even say

This was the one that I was convinced would end up making me a millionaire. With everyone on YouTube talking about 10k months, this dropshipping thing was just something that I absolutely had to do.

I tried:

  • Paid $127 for a course that said it could “reveal the secrets”.
  • Spent $29/month on Shopify for 3 months
  • $184 on Facebook ads that got 2 sales.
  • Both customers tried to refund the payment.

Total Revenue: $67

Total Cost: $407

Net Result: -$340 and a bruised ego

The Facebook ads went nowhere. Learnt that the expensive way.

Would I recommend the course? No. If you possibly consider spending $2000 to figure it out, then don’t.

Side Hustle #3: Food Delivery (Dash, GrubHub) (WORKED)

  • Timeline: June 2024 – present
  • Total Earned: $4,215 (7 months)
  • Hours: 12-15 hours a month

This one actually worked, and I’m still doing it.

Setting up on these platforms is pretty easy:

  • Download DoorDash and GrubHub
  • Do the background check (took me 4 days)
  • Start accepting orders

My initial approach ended up changing pretty quickly:

  • Do weekends only and hit the Friday/Sunday night slots from 6 to 10.
  • Stick to driving around the areas that you’re familiar with
  • Avoid orders that are $7 or under, or are more than 4 miles away
  • Drive around with DoorDash and GrubHub open and take the orders you want from either app

Overall earnings ended up around $600/month, though some hit $750, and slow months around $500.

Some of the negatives:

  • I end up spending $80-100/month on gas
  • There’s also wear and tear on the car (also don’t want to think about this)
  • Deal with customers who are rude
  • The weekends kind of suck to give up

But I know that if I’m working on this, I can anticipate $500-600 earnings. That’s more than I can say for freelancing.

So would I recommend driving for DoorDash and GrubHub? It’s definitely suitable if you need to take on the extra commitments to work for a dependable income.

Side Hustle #4: T-Shirts (FAILED)

  • Total Earned: $43
  • Total Hours: 30?
  • Timeline: July – August 2024

Selling on Redbubble and TeePublic with designs on Canva.

I created about 40 shirt listings with goofy quotes and designs. Then I sat and waited for sales.

Here are the results, 6 weeks in:

  • 3 sales
  • Commission made: $43
  • I realized my designs were trash

Why? Seemingly common designs. With thousands of people competing for the same visibility, if your designs are not genuinely one of a kind, funny, and/or appealing, you will not attract any attention.

After two months of work, the time was just not worth it.

Would I recommend it? Only if you have true artistic talent. I made cute designs on Canva with generic phrases, and you could do just about anything more productive with your time.

Side Hustle #5: Tutoring High School Math

  • Timeline: September 2024 – Present
  • Total earned: $1,680 (4 months)
  • Approximate time investment: 8-10 hours a month

I was more than qualified to help people understand math beyond just the basics, so I went to Facebook and Nextdoor to offer my assistance to high schoolers. I had no experience, so I set my price at $30 an hour and went from there.

How it went:

  • In week 2, I got my first student (her parent found me on Facebook).
  • She made referrals to two other families.
  • I now have 3 students who I meet with regularly (one hour each every week, and sometimes 2 hours if they have a test).

I make $90-120 a week, so that’s $360-480 for 3-4 hours of work.

A side hustle can provide extra income for investing when your primary budget feels limited.

Why this worked so well:

  • Parents need tutors; that desperation worked to my advantage.
  • I didn’t need to be as cheap as I thought (I raised my price to $35, and so $30 before that was actually too low).
  • I made my own schedule (I work weekday evenings and Saturday mornings).
  • It also turns out to be a lot of fun! Helping kids understand maths feels good.

Would I recommend it? 100% yes, especially if you’re good at any subject. Math, science, English, whatever. Just post on local Facebook groups and Nextdoor. You will get clients.

What I Learnt From All This.

I now make $900-1,100 per month with tutoring and food delivery. I am not quite at my $1,000 goal every month, but I am super close!

extra income cash from side hustle
Earning extra income outside main job

What I liked about them:

  1. I could start them with virtually no money, which was great for both.
  2. I was able to choose my own hours.
  3. I didn’t have to know anything about marketing or running ads.
  4. I was making money consistently, unlike freelancing, where you have to hunt for a new client every month.

The three that failed taught me:

  • Success stories on YouTube are more fantasy than truth.
  • Courses that promise to “reveal the secret” are scams.
  • If a business idea has a high upfront cost, it’s probably not a good idea to pursue it when you’re just starting out.

If you want to earn extra money, focus on the opportunities that are low-cost to start and that are the easiest to make money with. For me, those were delivery apps and tutoring.

I’ve heard some people have success with print-on-demand and dropshipping, but I didn’t.

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