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.
107 ideas, page 1 of 3
- Teaching hands-on shop class projects to kids, with customers found through homeschool groups and word of mouth. It can stay a weekend side hustle or grow larger.Teaching and coachingThe Koerner Office, 2026
- Renting out utility trailers with an almost fully automated booking process, alongside a full-time job. Customers come from Google and Facebook Marketplace.Rentals and assetsOver $10kThe Koerner Office, 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
- Buying poorly listed couches, negotiating the price down and reselling them with better photos, including AI-generated backgrounds. The operator is a teenager working in spare time.Physical productsThe Koerner Office, 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
- Teaches private music lessons and plays jazz gigs.Hacker News, 2026
- Rents out tables to vendors at local comic conventions.Rentals and assetsHacker News, 2026
- Sold unprocessed goat milk to a zoo's exotic animal nursery, used to feed young animals.Physical productsHacker News, 2026
- An anti-inflammatory coffee brand made with turmeric, produced by a local manufacturing partner. Sales come from subscriptions, bundles and influencer-driven social proof, run alongside a full-time job.Physical products$1k to $10kSide Hustle Nation, 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
- Selling ad space on oversized postcards mailed to every home on a route through USPS Every Door Direct Mail. Several local advertisers share each card, and the operators keep the difference.Services and freelancingSide Hustle Nation, 2026
- The operator imports vending machines that dispense perfume and places them in venues. Sales come from customers buying from the machines. The owner dropped it as too much hassle.Rentals and assetsOver $10kThe Koerner Office, 2025
- A paid membership that delivers private podcast episodes mixing public domain radio shows with cleaning routines and prompts. Members pay a monthly or quarterly fee.Content and mediaSide Hustle Nation, 2025
- 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
- Sells middleware that lets developers access Airtable and Google Sheets data through GraphQL.Software and appsHacker News, 2024
- Built a tool for brainstorming and converting ideas into diagrams, now earning revenue and working on search traffic.Software and appsHacker News, 2024
- Writes a newsletter of real-world projects for learning programming, and sells paid courses.Hacker News, 2024
- Runs a white-label flight and hotel search engine and shares deals by social media and email subscription.Content and mediaHacker News, 2024
- Runs a directory of website templates for static site generators and frameworks, earning affiliate sales and now sponsorships.Directories and marketplacesHacker News, 2024
- Built a web app to practice speaking languages with an AI, with a free tier and a paid tier.Software and appsHacker News, 2024
- A content management system that publishes static sites to Cloudflare, earning recurring hosting fees.Software and appsHacker News, 2024
- Gets income to support open source maintenance from Patreon, private consulting and a company sponsorship.Services and freelancingUnder $100Hacker News, 2024
- Runs a subscription tool that converts PDF bank statements into CSV, used mostly by individuals, bookkeepers and small business owners.Software and appsHacker News, 2024
- Built software for tracking all records about horses, and partners with racing associations to offer it to new owners of retired racehorses.Software and appsHacker News, 2024
- A tool that converts shared Drive folders into hosted searchable wikis, sold by subscription.Software and appsHacker News, 2024
- Built a booking system after seeing colleagues reserve rooms in a paper book, and sells it as a product.Software and appsHacker News, 2022
- A product that exports timetable data kept in spreadsheets into Google Calendar.Software and appsHacker News, 2022
- Runs a flight deals blog and newsletter with an embedded flight and hotel search tool, earning from bookings.Content and mediaHacker News, 2022
- A blog that earns from ads and Patreon support, covering hosting costs and a bit more.Content and mediaHacker News, 2022
- Posts videos on tech and photography and earns from the channel.Content and media$1k to $10kHacker News, 2022
- Runs a small blog about cash flow that earns a modest monthly income.Content and mediaHacker News, 2022
- A product review blog that earns from affiliate commissions.Content and mediaHacker News, 2021
- A service where users forward unwanted emails and it finds unsubscribe links and fills web forms for them.Software and appsHacker News, 2021
- Makes and sells notebooks with music staff paper for musicians.Physical productsHacker News, 2021
- Makes and ships a gadget for a small niche market from home, with no software in the product, and also plays music part-time.Physical productsHacker News, 2021
- A charting product for data maps, earning from subscriptions and from licensing its chart library.Software and appsHacker News, 2019
- Takes preorders for expiring domains and tries to catch them when they drop, and also holds a portfolio of domains for later development.Rentals and assetsHacker News, 2019
- A browser extension that tests sites for SEO, speed and security best practices, with free and paid tiers.Software and appsHacker News, 2019
- Rents out a couple of cheap units and built an app to manage rental administration, contracts and invoices, with the aim to offer it to others.Rentals and assetsOver $10kHacker News, 2019
- Sells products as a third-party seller on Amazon, treated as a semi-passive side business.Physical productsHacker News, 2019
- Built a portfolio management tool for cryptocurrency investors and reached subscription revenue quickly with a basic version, while keeping a day job.Software and appsHacker News, 2019
- Runs a site that reviews web hosts and earns affiliate commissions. Competition is heavy.Content and mediaHacker News, 2019
- A regular newsletter about web tools that earns income and leads to paid writing work.Content and mediaA few hours a weekHacker News, 2019
- DJs at nightclubs on Friday and Saturday nights, built up from a university hobby into a steady side income.Services and freelancing$1k to $10kHacker News, 2019
- Dry ages meat in specialized fridges and bags in a place where it is hard to find, then resells it online and over messaging apps at a large markup.Physical productsHacker News, 2019
- Makes wooden items with a laser cutter based on video games and shows, and sells them on Etsy. Covers materials and machine time.Physical products$1k to $10kA few hours a weekHacker News, 2019
- Designed hardware and an iPhone app that remotely control arrays of cameras. Sold mainly to photo booth operators.Physical productsHacker News, 2019
- Does adult webcam work with an established base of private clients, using it as flexible fallback income between jobs.Services and freelancingA few hours a weekHacker News, 2019