It’s no secret that a side hustle is beneficial for anyone trying to get out of debt. It allows for greater income that you can put straight to your loans! It even is helpful if you’re trying to accomplish other financial goals such as saving for an emergency fund or even that dream vacation. Extra income is always welcome. 🙂
I’ve been side hustling for about a year now. It started as an extra source of income to pay off our loans, and it has grown to something bigger. My side hustle helped us pay off debt months before initially planned. It you can’t already tell, I absolutely LOVE the benefit that a side hustle can bring and can’t recommend it enough!
There are a lot of side hustles out there and you’ll want to find the best one possible. Sure, delivering pizzas will get the job done and earn you more money to put to your debts. But how cool would it be to find a side hustle that you actually enjoy? Maybe could even be something that you take on full-time down the road?
I can’t encourage it enough as this is what I’ve done with my blog! While right now this is a side hustle that also is my hobby and brings me joy, this is something that I dream of one day being a full-time gig! Months ago, I never thought that blogging could become this for me, but I’ve started to see the fruit of my labor and time I’ve put into my blog. If you’re interested in blogging as a side hustle, be sure to read to the end and learn how I started my blog and tips to help you succeed in pursuing this side hustle passion.
Here are some points that you’ll want to think through so that you can start a successful side hustle.
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What Are You Passionate About?
If you want to find a side hustle that will bring you joy and be motivated to go to, it should really be something you’re passionate about. Something that you’re interested in. When looking for a perfect side hustle, list things that you are passionate about.
For me, this was personal finance. I was an accounting major in college and was doing accounting as a profession. It is something that I’m interested in and like to learn more about! I then gained even more interest when Jacob and I began our debt free journey. I loved being open about what we were doing and how we were paying off debt because it kept us motivated. And I love all things spreadsheets and number crunching. 🙂
So think about what you’re passionate about. This can even be a hobby. Basically, what would you do for fun and no one would pay you for it? Maybe you love soccer. Maybe it’s knitting. What about cooking? List out your interests on a piece of paper. As many as you can think of!
What Are You Good At?
To maximize the success of your side hustle, it should also be something you’re good at! So the next step is list everything that you are better at than the majority of other people. It should be something that sets you apart.
About 6 months into writing my blog, I realized that I was pretty good at personal finance and writing a blog. We were gaining traction on paying off our debt by creating a budget. By sharing this with others on my blog, I began getting really good feedback. People would reach out to me and share how my blog was encouraging them in their personal finance journey, and others were asking for more personalized advice. This is when I realized that writing my blog and sharing about personal finance was something that I was actually good at!
So start making your list and think of everything that you’re good at. You might be able to identify this by what people compliment you on. It can even be something random. For example, my husband is really good at hanging things. He is very meticulous with his measurements and choosing the right fixture to hang with! He has done this as a side hustle for other people because he is talented in this area.
Maybe you’re good at baking. Maybe you are a handy man. Whatever you are good at, there is most likely a side hustle that you can go off of. So start thinking and write it down!
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What Can Make You Money?
Now it’s time to combine your lists. What are you passionate about and good at? This is what you can use to make a side hustle that brings you joy and an income.
Again, this is something that I recently realized with my blog. I started my blog as a hobby. I am good at personal finance and passionate about sharing this important message to others through the outlet of my blog. By writing my blog, I was already doing something that I was good at and passionate about. But I wasn’t making money yet because I didn’t think it was possible. In October, I finally realized that I was missing out on a monetary benefit of my blog! So I began researching to determine how I could make money off of this thing that I was so passionate about and good at.
So how can you make money with where your passions and talents intersect? It’s probably easier than you think. Think about a product or service that you can provide that people would pay for. Ask yourself if you would pay for the product or service and if there is a need.
If your passions and talents are crafting headbands, is there a need for that? Could you sell them? Probably on Etsy! If you’re great at hanging things, is there a market for that? Of course! People are moving all the time and would love to not worry about hanging decorations on their wall.
What’s Next?
Now that you’ve found where your passions and talents intersect and know that you can make money, it’s time to come up with a business plan. You don’t need to be a business major to do this. Come up with your goals for your business. Where do you want to see it go? What outlets will you use to make money (i.e. Etsy, Craigslist, online, etc)?
Right now, you may just be looking for a side hustle. Something that will give you some extra cash while you still work your day job. But how cool would it be if you could work for yourself doing what you are good at and passionate about? I so encourage you to dream and take your side hustle to the next level. This is something that I have been so passionate about in the last few months.
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Turning A Blog Into A Side Hustle Or Business
If you’ve read this and are interested in starting a blog as a side hustle, I totally want to encourage you in that! For me, blogging has been such a fun way to combine my passions and talents and make money along the way! If you are interested is starting your own blogging side hustle turned business, I have a few products to recommend!
I host my blog through Bluehost with the WordPress add-on. This service has allowed me to own domain and run a professional website. If you are wanting to turn a blog into a business, you are going to need to be hosting your site. Bluehost is definitely the way to go! And it only costs $3.95 a month! Of course being The Budgeting Wife, I am frugally minded. And this service is definitely affordable and worth the cost. You can start your own website through Bluehost here.
Once you have your site set up, the next step is to start making money! Stay tuned for an upcoming post on how I make money with my site. But as a sneak peek, I’ll tell you that affiliate marketing is an amazing way to make money blogging. This is what I’ve been using to make money off my blog for the last couple months. I took the course Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing created by Michelle at Making Sense of Cents. She earns over $100,000 a month from her blog ($50,000 a month from affiliate marketing alone).
She is the pro when it comes to making money blogging, and I highly recommend taking her course if you want to blog as a source of income! Michelle shares all her tips and tricks of how to use affiliate marketing to generate an income and share amazing products with her readers. I’ve always been a fan of learning from people who are a success and Michelle is definitely a success when it comes to blogging. If you are interested in making turning your blog into a side hustle or business, I can’t recommend Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing enough!
Let me know in the comments below!
What side hustle have you been working at?
Can you turn it into a thriving business?