12 side hustle ideas you can start today to supplement your income

More people are side-hustling nowadays than at any other time. Roughly 70 million Americans are doing some side hustle. Numerous factors have led to this phenomenon; however, people are primarily motivated by Silicon Valley success stories. Similarly, they hear how entrepreneurs turn their side hustles into million-dollar companies, pay off student loans, buy their own houses, and make big, in general. These factors lure them to a side hustle. 

However, it has a flip side too. People don’t hear the stories where entrepreneurs weren’t able to take off or couldn’t pay off debt - the failures. Some even dove all in but could not make it. Analyzing these failures is crucial if you want to start up.

So how do you balance it? Should you realize your dream or remain on the safer side? It is a tough question. Fortunately, we have an answer. Patrick J. McGinnis has given the idea to become a ‘ten per cent entrepreneur’ in his book The 10% Entrepreneur. Patrick is an investor, entrepreneur, and writer.

The main idea of his book is that instead of plunging directly into entrepreneurship and leaving your 9-5 corporate job, you should allocate 10% of your time, resources, or intellectual capital to your entrepreneurial venture. If you fail, you may fall back on your regular job.

He argues that all of us have three resources to invest, i.e., time, money, and skills/knowledge/experience, which he calls intellectual capital. If it succeeds, you can do it full-time; otherwise, you will learn something valuable for your next project.

So, for example, you can invest time. You can invest in a startup or a company and get a share in stocks or equity, or you could do consulting and advisory and get monetary compensation. The idea is to utilize these resources to materialize your dream.

Becoming a 10% entrepreneur is a quite sane and practical idea that coincides with today’s topic, i.e., side hustle for programmers. We are giving some side hustle ideas that you could do, like ‘10% entrepreneurs.’ I have written it from the programmers’ point of view; you can adapt and improvise it according to your niche.

1. Tutoring/Coaching online/offline

Programming is a booming field. People from all parts of the world are entering the programming field. Most of them cannot afford expensive colleges and boot camps. You can teach them online or in person if they are nearby.

Similarly, you can scale up your coaching gig and train a group of students in a virtual classroom over Zoom or any other app. You can ramp it up further by offering recorded courses that students can buy in addition to teaching. The average salary for a part-time computer coding teacher/instructor starts from approximately $16.39 per hour. The national average salary for a Programming Tutor is $20,347 in the United States.

2. Become an influencer on Social Media

Social media influencers are all the rage these days. Some of them are earning handsomely. You can become an influencer in your niche. For example, social media celebrities make $50-50,000 per post and make $40,000 - 100,000 per year through sponsorship, ads, and affiliate marketing. However, the exact amount varies from industry to industry.

3. Build a website or a blog

If you are an experienced programmer, you can share your knowledge with new programmers through a website or a blog. It is a popular niche for programmers. Numerous blogs are dedicated to different programming languages such as Python, JavaScript, PHP, Java, C #, Swift, Ruby, etc.

These blogs make money in several ways. First is affiliate marketing. In this method, you promote a particular product or service on your website and get paid in return. Another way is running ads on your website. Google pays you a fixed amount on each clicked ad.

There are a lot of inspirational stories where bloggers made six-figure incomes through blogs. For example, Jeremy Schoemaker made $132,994.97 from Google Adsense. According to statistics, you can make $0.01-0.10 per page view in many niches with display and affiliate ads. The revenue increases with the number of views. With 100,000 views, the earnings can go up to $1,000 - 10,000 per month.

4. E-commerce store

Online shopping has almost replaced the traditional real-life shopping experience. People now prefer to stay home and browse their desired products online. New online shopping and dropshipping websites are continually emerging. You can use your web development skills to establish your own dropshipping or eCommerce store.

In 2019, the eCommerce industry generated $3.53 trillion in sales revenue. This trend is estimated to reach $6 trillion by 2023. While new drop shippers earn $1-1,000 per month, well-established companies generate sales from $50,000 - 100,000 per month.

5. Writing books

People still love to read books. If you have enough experience and expertise in your field and can write in an understandable language, you should write a book. Similarly, you can write an eBook.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, full-time authors declared $62,170 as the median salary. The part-time or one-time authors make significantly less, depending on the niche, region, and other factors.

Online platforms pay different amounts in royalty. For example, Amazon offers eBook authors a 30% or 70% royalty rate.

6. Investment

Becoming an angel investor is another way to give back to the programming community. In return, you get a stock option or equity. If the startup succeeds, its share value increases, too. The angel investing route is for high-net-worth individuals with tens of thousands of dollars to spare. Angel investing is high-risk, high-reward, and not for an average person.

There is a famous story of how a graffiti artist, David Choe, who painted murals on Facebook office walls, became a millionaire after Facebook announced an Initial Public Offering of stock. He made an estimated 200 million USD. 

You can invest in other businesses too. However, each niche has its rules. Before investing your hard-earned money in anything, do thorough research on the ins and outs of the niche.

7. Build WordPress Plugins and Themes

WordPress is the most popular Content Management System in the world. More than 30% of websites have been made using WordPress. Matching its popularity, it has an enormous plugin and themes library.

While most plugins are free, others require a subscription or price. Using your programming/web development knowledge, you can build a useful plugin creating a continuous passive income.

You can go for WordPress theme development as well. It is quite a lucrative side gig; WordPress themes sell at a reasonable price. Customized WordPress themes can sell for $1,000 - $5,000. This price could go up to $10,000 with accompanying plugins and additional features.

There are four possible ways to monetize plugin development:

Sell plugins from your website or a platform such as Codecanyon. WordPress is an open-source repository that doesn’t allow paid options within its jurisdiction.

Custom plugin development. There is a growing demand for customized WordPress plugins. 

Another way is to customize plugins according to the request of users.

You can educate new WordPress developers.

8. Quality assurance

There is a growing opportunity for quality assurance. Software quality assurance requires technical knowledge. Different certifications are also available, which enhance your resume. You can freelance as a quality assurance expert for websites, mobile apps, and software.

According to ZipRecruiter, the national average salary of freelance quality assurance professionals is $73,683/year. However, the exact figure varies with the amount of time, experience, and niche.

9. Consulting

Over the years, if you have gathered enough experience, knowledge, and expertise to give sound advice to someone, you can start a consulting business. You can advise people about their software or web-related marketing, apps, and services and charge a fee for the value and insight you provide. While full-time software consultants make $95,300 annually in the United States, part-timers and freelancers earn varyingly.

10. Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization has evolved from tweaking some meta tags to a full-blown field. You can leverage your web development expertise and combine it with marketing knowledge to become an expert. SEO is one of the most popular gigs on freelancing websites.

Nowadays, hundreds of new websites come into the market and need optimization for search engines like Google and Bing. The average salary for freelance SEO experts is approximately $56,675 per year, and if you do it part-time, you can still earn good bucks. Freelancers earn an average of $1,779 per client each month.

11. Work on the next big thing - become an entrepreneur

If you have a great idea to change the world, it passes the 10% entrepreneurship test. Apple and Google started from a garage; Facebook from a dormitory. There are numerous stories to motivate you. Don’t just dive in full-fledged. Test the water and adapt accordingly. If your instinct tells you that it has growth potential, you are certainly on something.

The idea doesn’t need to be in the digital domain; you can do something about a real-life problem. You can succeed if you provide a valuable solution to a genuine issue. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, most microbusinesses cost around $3,000 to start, while most home-based franchises cost $2,000 to $5,000.

12. Game development

Mobile game apps are a lucrative industry. Do you remember the success of ‘Flappy Bird’? In its heyday, it was generating $50,000 per day. However, as Flappy Bird did, there is no assurance that your game will go viral. However, if you do enough market research and develop an average game that users will enjoy, you can hope for some passive income. There are several pricing models for games. You can sell it or go for in-app advertising or in-app purchases.

Conclusion

If we want to summarise it, then side-husting or side-gig is not only viable but also mandatory, especially when dealing with a global pandemic. Thousands of people have been laid off or have been hard hit. Due to this economic uncertainty, it is advisable to have multiple income streams.

However, Chartering the unknown territories of entrepreneurship without a backup plan is riskier than ever. A sensible way to side-hustle is to devote a chunk of your effort, money, and skills. Being a programmer gives you an edge to start a high-return side business.

Now, tell us what side-hustle ideas you are working on or which idea from the above list fancied you. Let me know in the comments below.