TikTok aspect hustles promise huge cash for little effort, however do they actually work?
On this week’s episode, we’re trying on the good, the unhealthy, and the ugly of aspect hustles which can be standard on TikTok with Daniella Flores.
Daniella runs ILikeToDabble.com and is a self-proclaimed aspect hustle queen who has gone from 0 to 12 earnings streams in 4 years, paying off over $40k of debt within the course of.
They now train hundreds of others how one can begin and develop their very own aspect hustles, get their cash proper, and stay their finest life.
We’ve obtained an extended record of TikTok aspect hustles to run by means of, so let’s get proper into it!
Additionally: I’ve began sharing a few of my favourite Facet Hustle Present moments on TikTok. Make sure to follow along!
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1. Drop Transport
Drop transport is a type of e-commerce the place your suppliers ship merchandise on to clients in your behalf.
Daniella dabbled in drop transport in 2020, operating a print-on-demand store on Etsy. Print-on-demand is a achievement course of that drop-ships merchandise to clients solely after a sale goes by means of.
Utilizing instruments like Canva, Printify, and Printful, Daniella designed and bought customized merchandise on-line for bachelorette events, akin to T-shirts, hoodies, and wine coolers.
Daniella most well-liked Etsy over different e-commerce websites due to its massive person base. Customers on Etsy additionally are likely to seek for area of interest merchandise, so so long as you goal the proper key phrases to your area of interest, it’s best to be capable of drive visitors to your retailer simply.
What’s extra, Etsy prices as little as $0.20 for every merchandise you record, and also you received’t must do as a lot advertising there as you’ll on Shopify and different on-line marketplaces.
However drop transport isn’t as straightforward a aspect hustle because it’s made out to be on TikTok. Daniella ended up shutting down their retailer after a couple of months, having realized simply how a lot customer support went into it. It additionally didn’t assist that the pandemic induced transport delays.
Daniella’s recommendation for these contemplating drop shipping as a aspect hustle? Do web optimization and speak to producers, whether or not on-line or in individual.
2. Transcription
In a single video, a TikTok person prompt transcribing as a aspect hustle by signing up for Rev — a speech-to-text service that connects clients with freelancers — after which operating the audio that it offers you thru a free speech recognition software program like Dictation.io.
You’ll nonetheless need to double-check the standard of the transcriptions, however you can also make $1 per finished-audio minute doing this aspect hustle. One TikTok person even claims you possibly can simply make $500 a day on Rev when you work eight hours a day.
Daniella did some digging, nonetheless, and located that sounds a bit too good to be true. Speaking to individuals on Twitter, they discovered that some freelancers make as little as $100 a month on Rev — about $100 lower than what the corporate claims its freelancers earn a month on common.
And when you’re doing this for eight hours a day, then it’s not a aspect hustle.
In the end, Daniella thinks transcribing on platforms like Rev is a superb aspect hustle for individuals who wish to get into it as learners to study and acquire expertise within the discipline however not for many who wish to make actual cash on the aspect.
One other factor about this aspect hustle is it’s extremely aggressive. Transcription requires abilities that almost all people has, i.e., listening and typing.
And with the strain from AI-powered transcription providers, it may be difficult to ascertain your self in that house and justify your price.
Associated: Right here’s an inside glimpse on what it’s like to get started as a transcriptionist.
3. Drop Servicing
Like drop transport, drop servicing is actually a enterprise mannequin the place you purchase low and promote excessive, solely you’re working with providers as a substitute of merchandise.
The way it works is companies promote providers to purchasers, then rent cheaper freelancers to do the job.
In episode 479, Georgia Austin from Wizeo shared how she did over $500k price of labor by means of Fiverr in 2021 regardless of a crowded world of different writers on the market. In 2022, she began focusing extra on rising her personal content material company exterior of Fiverr as she doesn’t need to pay Fiverr’s 20% fee and has extra management over direct orders.
However whereas drop servicing is unquestionably legit, Daniella says some companies are solely capable of make a lot cash as a result of they don’t pay their staff a residing wage.
On TikTok, drop servicing as a aspect hustle is usually introduced as a get-rich-quick scheme as a substitute of a legit enterprise. And when you deal with it as the previous, it might come again to chunk you.
All issues thought-about, drop servicing is likely to be higher suited to low-tech blue-collar businesses which have little to no presence on-line, akin to landscaping and professional cleaning.
4. Low-Content material Publishing
Widespread TikTok aspect hustle #4 is low-content publishing. In a nutshell, that is importing an nearly clean e-book to Amazon and having the corporate print and ship it in your behalf.
Assume journals, diaries, planners, sketchbooks, and notebooks. With these kind of books, the worth comes from the way you’ve structured the mostly-blank pages and prompts in addition to who you’re focusing on as your buyer.
For essentially the most half, low-content publishing is marketed on TikTok as a shortcut for many who don’t have the experience or the time to jot down and self-publish a 25,000-word book.
However as Daniella noticed, most TikTok customers who do low-content publishing by no means actually give distinct numbers or present something on the again finish of issues. They typically concentrate on the creation half, which appears straightforward sufficient — that’s, till it’s important to promote the e-book on Amazon.
The issue with low-content publishing on Amazon is it’s a extremely aggressive house the place individuals just about simply throw their merchandise on the wall and see what sticks.
That’s why Tammie Chrin, a long-time Facet Hustle Present listener, developed her personal methodology for creating branded books for businesses featuring their content. She calls it KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) 4 B2B.
With this methodology, quite than rely solely on Amazon for gross sales, you go to present companies and create customized books for them that they’ll then purchase for or present to their clients.
5. Promoting Printables
Persevering with with the e-commerce theme, #5 on the record is promoting digital merchandise or printables on Etsy.
With this aspect hustle, you create the products on programs like Canva or Adobe Photoshop and market them to your audience.
The very best half? You don’t must ship something or meet anyone in individual. As quickly as somebody buys your printable, all they should do is obtain it.
TikTok customers say this can be a nice supply of passive income, however Daniella says that’s not totally true. “You’re nonetheless a enterprise. You must present customer support … all that enjoyable stuff.”
And as with every on-line enterprise, you in all probability received’t make some huge cash doing this for the primary few years.
Nonetheless, this aspect hustle has the potential to scale when you get the cling of it and when you keep it up lengthy sufficient.
6. Naming Firms
Do you will have a knack for names? This subsequent aspect hustle is likely to be good for you.
Squadhelp is an progressive crowdsourcing platform for enterprise names, tag strains, logos, and different comparable advertising tasks.
For only a few hundred bucks, a startup can submit a proposal to Squadhelp containing the small print of their marketing strategy and a request for crowdsourced naming concepts.
As soon as the proposal is processed, the startup can maintain a naming contest on Squadhelp. Contests usually run for a few week and often appeal to tons of entries from customers (referred to as “creatives”).
On the finish of the competition, the startup chooses one title from the pool of entries, and the winner receives a minimal $100 prize. Some contests pay as excessive as $500!
The draw back? Contests on Squadhelp usually appeal to a whole lot of submissions, so your odds of successful are typically low.
However when you’re artistic sufficient that you could simply give you names, then this aspect hustle is unquestionably price giving a shot!
7. Affiliate Advertising and marketing
With affiliate marketing, you principally earn a fee on gross sales which can be referred by means of your weblog or web site.
On TikTok, customers can reportedly make as a lot as $2,000 a day in affiliate gross sales, although the platform doesn’t permit customers so as to add affiliate hyperlinks to their movies.
A few of the methods customers get round which can be:
- upgrading to a enterprise account
- placing affiliate hyperlinks of their profile bio
- redirecting visitors to their different social media profiles
- utilizing third-party instruments like Linktree
- selling low cost codes of their movies
Whereas internet online affiliate marketing is a legit passive earnings era technique, Daniella says it solely actually works for TikTok customers with hundreds of followers.
Online marketing can be a partnership between companies, Daniella explains, not a partnership between a enterprise and any outdated TikTok person whose profile can disappear any day.
On the entire, internet online affiliate marketing is a superb aspect hustle, simply not by itself.
8. Dumpster Diving
One other aspect hustle that has been making the rounds on TikTok for some time is dumpster diving. It is probably not as low-effort as the opposite aspect hustles featured on this record, however its ridiculously low barrier to entry makes it nearly not possible to cross up.
This, in fact, includes going out to dumpsters, often at night time, and seeing what obtained thrown out that day. You may need higher odds of scoring an excellent haul when you do that in an prosperous a part of city or take a look at dumpsters behind a strip mall close to you.
You could possibly even minimize out the intermediary utterly and speak to your native shops to see in the event that they’d be keen to provide their trash to you straight.
However dumpster diving is a hit and miss. Some TikTok customers who dumpster-dive on the aspect report flipping their finds and selling them for a profit on eBay or Fb market. In the meantime, those that will not be so fortunate share movies detailing their gross or unfruitful expertise.
For many who can’t get previous the gross side of dumpster diving or don’t have the time to scour dumpsters, Daniella says there’s a viable different. Oftentimes, individuals who rent organizers to assist them unpack after transferring into a brand new residence are keen to provide away issues they don’t want.
You could possibly get in on that if you wish to strive dumpster-diving however don’t wish to threat getting bitten by a rat or going residence empty-handed.
Associated: Flea Market Flipping Case Study: $7000k a Month Part-Time
9. Promoting Life Insurance coverage
In response to Daniella, it’s largely younger males who make movies recommending individuals promote life insurance coverage.
Daniella regarded up a number of the customers doing this and located that a lot of them had been from an insurance coverage company referred to as Family First Life (FFL) Insurance.
FFL has a multilevel advertising (MLM) construction by which present members make their cash not from the life insurance coverage that they promote however from the brand new members they recruit.
“That’s not an excellent factor to get into,” Daniella mentioned, including that the entire thing is deceptive. “I don’t suggest [MLMs] a lot, particularly when life insurance coverage is concerned.”
10. Portray Home Numbers on the Curb
This aspect hustle is arguably higher suited to teenagers looking to earn cash over the summer time. It requires not more than $50-100 price of supplies from Residence Depot, some door-knocking, and half an hour of portray.
The one problem with that is you possibly can fairly rapidly saturate your native market, however it’s fairly cool for what it’s.
11. Area of interest Cleansing Enterprise
Area of interest cleansing providers are one other aspect hustle that’s particularly standard amongst younger TikTok customers.
Daniella shared how they got here throughout a TikTok of children washing individuals’s trash cans. The kids would power-wash as much as 20 trash cans a day, reportedly incomes round $2,000 per week.
However you don’t need to be a teen or a pupil to get into the area of interest cleansing enterprise.
Other than washing individuals’s trash cans, you would supply to scrub yards, headlights, or gutters. No matter it’s, there’s in all probability somebody on the market who’d pay to have it cleaned.
Low-tech providers like these even have little to no competitors on-line, so you would simply create a brochure-style website or a Google Enterprise Profile to seek out potential clients.
12. Freelance Content material Creation
Rounding out this record is freelance content material creation on TikTok.
With this aspect hustle, TikTok creators basically act as freelance model ambassadors, making movies for manufacturers the identical approach freelance writers would write for firm blogs.
How creators get began making movies for manufacturers is that they promote manufacturers they finally wish to work with on their web page free of charge. As soon as they construct up an natural following round these manufacturers, they’ll shoot the manufacturers a message and ask in the event that they’re all in favour of working collectively.
Charges range per creator because of the contract negotiation concerned, however creators are paid wherever from $250-2000 per TikTok video, relying on the model they’re working with.
However be warned: This aspect hustle requires a lot of video know-how. “You must find out about video advertising and short-form content material advertising. And I’m certain it takes a ton of time as a result of I understand how a lot time it takes me to create movies,” Daniella mentioned.
What’s Subsequent?
Daniella is trying ahead to the writing tasks they’ve lined up this yr and the manufacturers they’ll be working with on these tasks.
On the time of the decision, Daniella mentioned they’re nonetheless within the means of adjusting to their new lifetime of full-time self-employment, having left their job only some months in the past.
“The way in which that I deliver earnings now’s 100% on me. That’s a brand new mindset block that I’ve to work with generally, however I’m nonetheless loving it.”
Takeaway
“There’s a glimmer of fact in nearly every part, but when it sounds too good to be true, it in all probability is.”
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