Side hustle ideas from people who actually run them
651 side hustles, each one described by the person running it, in a podcast, a YouTube interview or a Hacker News thread. Every idea links to its source. Filter by what it costs to start, how much time it takes, and how it earns.
177 ideas, page 1 of 4
- A solo consultant advises teams of five to two hundred people on AI, starting with a paid inbox audit that is credited toward a longer retainer.Services and freelancingThe Side Hustle Show, 2026
- Offering AI assessments that show businesses what they can automate, then building the solutions with tools like Claude. The founders started by texting people they knew.Services and freelancingUnder $100The Koerner Office, 2026
- Writing and editing articles for companies that pay for human experience and voice, with AI tools used as helpers. Clients come from Upwork and cold outreach.Services and freelancingUnder $100Part-timeThe Koerner Office, 2026
- Short product review videos uploaded through the Amazon Influencer Program, which appear on product listings and earn commissions. The approach relies on filming high volumes of products found close to home.Content and mediaSide Hustle Nation, 2026
- Writing jingles for plumbers, roofers and pest control companies, then running them as skippable YouTube ads in the client's area. AI music and voice tools now replace the studio.Services and freelancingThe Koerner Office, 2026
- The 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.Services and freelancingUnder $100Hands-offCorey Ganim (YouTube), 2026
- The 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.Services and freelancingCorey Ganim (YouTube), 2026
- The consultant interviews the owner of one business process, documents how it runs, cuts the wasted steps, and hands over current and future process maps. Automating the redesigned process is sold as a separate follow-on.Services and freelancingUnder $100Part-timeCorey Ganim (YouTube), 2026
- Visiting homes under construction to photograph and verify progress for lenders before loan draws are released. Jobs come through inspection marketplaces, with almost no startup costs and no special license.Services and freelancingUnder $100Side Hustle Nation, 2026
- The operator organizes a client's promises, decisions, projects and preferences into a set of linked markdown notes that AI tools can read, then keeps it current with ingest and review routines. It is sold as the first engagement because later automations depend on it.Services and freelancingUnder $100Build With AI, 2026
- Documents government processes for immigrants and earns commissions on services they need, such as banking, insurance and translations, plus some consulting.Content and mediaHacker News, 2026
- Writes technical documentation and grant proposals, matching funding sources to institutions.Services and freelancingUnder $100Hacker News, 2026
- Sold pesticide-free produce foraged from leased land and roadsides at farmers markets.Physical productsHacker News, 2026
- An experienced operator sits in leadership meetings for companies without a technology chief, finds where AI helps, and builds or teaches the team to build it. It is billed as a monthly retainer, and a paid training day often leads into it.Services and freelancingPart-timeRyan Doser, 2026
- Handling building permits for property owners and developers as a niche service, using skills learned while flipping houses. Clients come by referral, with no ads or cold calling.Services and freelancingSide Hustle Nation, 2026
- A recurring dog poop cleanup service for homeowners, started with almost no money as a side project. The founder also teaches the model to others through a paid community.Services and freelancingPart-timeSide Hustle Nation, 2026
- Posting engaging content, much of it screenshots of other people's posts, to a Facebook page enrolled in Facebook's content monetization program. Facebook shares ad revenue with the creator.Content and mediaUnder $100A few hours a weekSide Hustle Nation, 2025
- Builds browser extensions that fix common site annoyances. Revenue comes from them, helped by search-friendly names and store reviews.Software and appsUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2024
- A minimalist Android launcher distributed free, with a paid pro version.Software and appsHacker News, 2024
- A template for a note-taking app with a user guide and video course based on the owner's personal system, sold to customers.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2024
- Maintains a UI library for a programming language and gets income through GitHub sponsorships.Software and appsUnder $100Hacker News, 2024
- Gets income to support open source maintenance from Patreon, private consulting and a company sponsorship.Services and freelancingUnder $100Hacker News, 2024
- Publishes personal notes from nonfiction books on a site and earns some money from it.Content and mediaHacker News, 2024
- A privacy-friendly open source analytics tool for apps.Software and appsHacker News, 2024
- A file manager supporting many storage protocols. Earns by building custom plugins such as authentication layers.Hacker News, 2024
- Writes and self-publishes science fiction romance books on the side.Digital productsUnder $100Hacker News, 2022
- Found a popular product category on a code marketplace and built a better JavaScript image cropper and uploader to sell there.Digital productsUnder $100Hacker News, 2022
- Built a compression tool that was slow to compress but fast to decompress and licensed it to big software vendors who shipped floppy disks.Hands-offHacker News, 2022
- Runs a newsletter that profiles the home workspaces of makers and creators, earning recurring revenue.Content and mediaHacker News, 2022
- Began by writing Windows apps for a hospital department and grew it into a SaaS tool for building calculator apps.Software and appsHacker News, 2022
- An open source tool for detecting website changes, with a paid hosted subscription and custom work for companies.Software and appsHacker News, 2022
- Wrote embedded software and earned a royalty on every device shipped for many years.Hands-offHacker News, 2022
- Builds small apps and games for niche audiences and earns by adding paid features and selling ad space.Software and appsHacker News, 2022
- Built a very basic tool for an industry the owner wanted to be part of, then found a larger opportunity there that now supports them full-time.Software and appsHacker News, 2022
- Put cartoon T-shirt designs about software error messages on craft sites.Physical productsUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2022
- Runs a small blog about cash flow that earns a modest monthly income.Content and mediaHacker News, 2022
- Self-publishes fiction and is growing a backlist and an email newsletter to increase sales.Digital productsHacker News, 2022
- Wrote helpful articles, collected them into a book sold on Gumroad, and also builds a monitoring SaaS on the side.Digital productsHacker News, 2021
- Sells a curated list of places to promote side projects, for makers wanting traffic, directly through Gumroad.Digital productsUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2021
- Built a site comparing glasses retailers that earns affiliate commissions.Content and mediaUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2021
- Tutors middle and high school students in math and CS for an hourly rate.Teaching and coachingUnder $100Hacker News, 2021
- A paid Mac App Store app that grew out of a personal need for a Safari extension that refreshes tabs automatically.Software and appsHands-offHacker News, 2021
- Earns twice-yearly royalties from a published book and small licensing deals for translations in other countries.Hands-offHacker News, 2019
- Compiles articles and tips from a newsletter into ebooks sold on Leanpub and Amazon.Digital productsHacker News, 2019
- A long-running blog on frontend topics that earns from ads and search visitors with only occasional new posts.Content and mediaHands-offHacker News, 2019
- Built a level design package and sells it on the Unity Asset Store, relying on organic discovery.Digital productsHands-offHacker News, 2019
- Moved all past writing behind Medium's paywall and removed calls to action to qualify for distribution. Earns a monthly share from reader time.Content and mediaUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2019
- Collects small monthly support on Patreon for a niche open source game.Under $100Hacker News, 2019