Side hustle ideas from people who actually run them
Real side businesses, described by their owners. Filter by cost, time and how they earn.
- Ideas
- 651 ideas
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- 14 publications and shows
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- Files sold online: templates, printables, ebooks, stock photos, fonts, presets, plugins, recorded courses
- A web app, SaaS, mobile app, browser extension, bot or API that people pay for or that earns from ads
- A blog, niche website, newsletter, YouTube channel, podcast or social account that earns from ads, affiliate links or sponsors
- Making, printing or reselling physical goods, online or in person
- Doing work for clients for a fee: freelance, consulting, done-for-you services, repairs, local services
- Earning from something you own: renting property, rooms, equipment, vehicles, parking, vending machines, domains
- A job board, listings site, directory or marketplace that connects buyers and sellers
- Live tutoring, lessons, workshops, coaching or cohort classes
Matching ideas
About the data110 ideas, page 1 of 3
- Services and freelancingThe operator gathers one client's documents, structures them, and loads them into a custom GPT or Claude project so a specific audience can ask it questions instead of the owner. The example was a business broker whose buyers queried the assistant about a listing.Under $100Hands-offOnlineCorey Ganim (YouTube), 2026
- Services and freelancingThe operator replaces a repeated manual process with an automation built on off-the-shelf tools such as Zapier, Make or Asana, usually after a short diagnostic. It is charged as a one-off project, with a walkthrough video and a how-to-fix document handed over.OnlineCorey Ganim (YouTube), 2026
- Digital productsMade a course on spreadsheet functions and formulas hosted on a small course platform, earning a commission share.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- Digital productsA template for a note-taking app with a user guide and video course based on the owner's personal system, sold to customers.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- Digital productsCreated an online course teaching DevOps to small companies and self-hosters, which keeps selling even against bigger instructors.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- Physical productsWorked with a factory to make grounded power adapters that stop case buzzing, sold on Amazon.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2024
- Content and mediaPublishes personal notes from nonfiction books on a site and earns some money from it.OnlineHacker News, 2024
- Digital productsWrote and sells a technical book on deployment that shows the steps without higher-level tools.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2022
- Physical productsPut cartoon T-shirt designs about software error messages on craft sites.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2022
- Digital productsSells a curated list of places to promote side projects, for makers wanting traffic, directly through Gumroad.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2021
- Services and freelancingSells commissioned art, licenses existing work from a large catalog, and puts designs on print-on-demand sites for low-effort extra income.OnlineHacker News, 2021
- Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2021
- Physical productsStarted a niche menswear business alongside a full-time job. It now runs mostly on its own at small scale.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2021
- Physical productsEarns twice-yearly royalties from a published book and small licensing deals for translations in other countries.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsCompiles articles and tips from a newsletter into ebooks sold on Leanpub and Amazon.OnlineHacker News, 2019
- Content and mediaA long-running blog on frontend topics that earns from ads and search visitors with only occasional new posts.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Content and mediaMoved all past writing behind Medium's paywall and removed calls to action to qualify for distribution. Earns a monthly share from reader time.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsWrote a regular expressions pocket reference for a technical publisher, earning ongoing royalties.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsRuns a hobby business selling maps made in a historic style.OnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsSells a Ruby book on a self-publishing platform, first in the owner's native language and now being translated to English.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsWrote introductory programming tutorials and sells them as ebooks on Leanpub.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsDesigned a 3D printed upgrade for a worn part in certain coffee grinders and sells it through a print-on-demand storefront. Traffic comes from repair guides.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsCreated sticker sets for a popular messaging app and earned from their sales.Under $100OnlineHacker News, 2019
- Content and mediaRuns a website reviewing music equipment, especially MIDI keyboards, and earns commissions through Amazon affiliate links.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsDesigns t-shirts with jokes for machine learning and data science fans and sells them through a print-on-demand storefront.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsSells a harmonica instruction book and science fiction short story collections on Amazon, and also sells stories to magazines.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Digital productsWrites travel and lifestyle books and sells them as ebooks and print on demand on Amazon and Apple. Little ongoing work after publishing.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Content and mediaA niche blog about getting a professional engineering license, carrying affiliate links to a prep package seller. Earns passively from affiliate commissions.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Content and mediaA video published years ago that YouTube keeps recommending, paying out ad revenue with no promotion by the owner.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsRuns an online clothing store where ordering and fulfillment are automated. Sells meme shirts and promotes through social media only.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2019
- Physical productsDesigns and sells sketchpads for mobile and browser wireframes through a Shopify store, reordering inventory in larger batches as it sells out.$100 to $1kOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Content and mediaAn information site about a specific skin condition that earns from display ads and Amazon affiliate links and is mostly left on autopilot.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Rentals and assetsOwns apartments rented to students and managed entirely by an agency that finds tenants and handles upkeep, paying a fixed guaranteed income.Over $10kHands-offHacker News, 2018
- Digital productsTranslates well-regarded public domain works into English and sells them as ebooks. Finding niche topics is the key.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Digital productsWrote and self-published an e-book about CSS that has kept selling a year after launch.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Digital productsWrote an ebook on starting and growing a subscription box business, drawn from running one. Sold through Gumroad, Amazon and iBooks, and still sells a little each month.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Digital productsA small shop selling pre-production, storyboard and film treatment templates through an online marketplace.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Content and mediaA football tipping website built on WordPress that earns from paid memberships and sponsored posts.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Digital productsSells online courses on algorithmic trading through its own site and Udemy. Maintenance is mostly answering student emails.OnlineHacker News, 2018
- Digital productsCreated video courses on Udemy that keep earning money after the initial work.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Content and mediaA blog about earning a professional engineering license in a niche with little coverage. Income comes from an affiliate deal with a company selling licensing prep packages.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Digital productsWrote and self-published a book about a game framework. Earns a small monthly income from sales.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Digital productsWriting and self-publishing a tutorial book on the Angular framework.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Content and mediaA personal technology blog that earns small amounts from on-page advertising.$100 to $1kOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Digital productsProduced a video course and a book about the Flask framework. Earns ongoing royalties from sales.Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2018
- Content and mediaRuns a blog about watch straps featuring photography from brands and custom leather makers plus interviews. Income comes from affiliate links.OnlineHacker News, 2018
- Physical productsCreates sports-themed apparel designs sold through a print-on-demand marketplace, starting with a niche. Fulfillment times and prices have been the main obstacle.Under $100Hands-offOnlineHacker News, 2017
- Rentals and assetsBought a VR headset and set up a site where people could rent it. Ranked well on Google for rental searches, then shut it down.Hacker News, 2016