The Side Hustle I Thought Would Change My Life

Decisions to Make

The hardest part of writing this, since I knew ahead of time that I wanted to write it, was trying to decide which side hustle to write about. Yes, there were several over the last many years. So, I’ve chosen not to write this about just one and instead to just give you some of the examples that I’ve come across and left. I truly thought each of them was going to change my life and my financial situation. I was wrong.

Affiliate Marketing

Of course, there could never be a post on this topic without talking about the wide-spread and probably most failed side hustle of all time… affiliate marketing. It seems like anyone who has ever tried to make money online has tried to do so using affiliate marketing. The honest truth is that unless you already have a following, or you have a large budget for running paid ads, you probably aren’t going to make much if anything with affiliate marketing.

I was no different than most, I thought that I was going to change my life with affiliate marketing and that I would be making a living from it in no time. Wrong! I eventually figured out that this is the type of side hustle that is actually an add-on to something that is already in place. When you have a decent sized mailing list, a social media following, or something similar to that… then you can utilize affiliate marketing to make money. This is one of those that is ironic, in that you are usually successful in it about the time you don’t really need it as much.

Print on Demand Platforms & Shopify Store

Another major and all-too-common side hustle is selling on platforms or your own Shopify store using print on demand. I admit, I fell for this one a few times over the years. Yes, I tried both methods. Both methods failed really. Now, don’t get me wrong, there was a time when putting design up on Redbubble and similar platforms would make you a little bit of money. Basically, for most of us it meant we could afford to buy a coffee or maybe dinner from a fast-food restaurant sometime. Very few made income-level money doing this, even back then.

Platforms that had marketplaces usually had low quality products and were overpriced, and having your own Shopify store meant that you were a marketer who happens to design products now and then. Another case of if you want to be successful, then you need to have enough money to sink into paid ads… which meant you probably didn’t need the business anyway. Very frustrating and familiar problem. Of course, that’s not even talking about the monthly cost of having Shopify and the percentage that they take from each sale you do make. You find yourself slaving away to make someone else more money… again.

Digital Products

We can touch on selling digital products really quick as well, since it relates to this directly. In fact, people use Shopify to sell digital products, they use similar platforms to sell their digital products, such as Etsy or the like. The problem is this side hustle can be summed up very quickly, and it is a problem that comes with all of these we talked about. The problem is that you need a social media following, or enough money to sink into paid ads, if you want to make this successful. Even if you have one or both of those, it can take years sometimes to really start making money like you dream about.

In Conclusion… Does Anything Work?

So, what is the answer? What is the side hustle that actually works? Does this mythical creature even exist? I believe it does…but it will still take time and a lot of effort. The most promising side hustle seems to be offering something as a service. It also seems to work better if you start locally with your service. That’s the quick summary.

I’m not going to give you details because, honestly, I’m still on the journey of making mine work. Since I haven’t reached an endpoint of making income level money yet, I’m not going to claim to have all the answers and give you lies and empty words. If you want to see how it is going, you can follow my journey on YouTube with the channel I started.

No, this post is not to market my YouTube channel. If you don’t want to subscribe there or watch a video, that’s fine. It’s up to you. You can find it here: Tim Rowland Live | Drataeo Live.

Good luck out there and feel free to comment on anything you’ve found that is working. Not market something… just real and truthful comment.