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.
91 ideas, page 1 of 2
- A simple website that helps people learn Excel through exercises. The founder built it with very little effort and grew it as a dead-simple, boring niche site.Content and mediaHands-offStarter Story, 2026
- Free chalkboards and whiteboards placed in restaurants and busy venues, which use them for daily specials. Income comes from selling small ad spots along the bottom to local businesses.Side Hustle Nation, 2026
- A mobile game built by a former big tech employee after leaving a full-time job. It grew with no paid marketing.Software and appsStarter Story, 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
- 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
- A free web tool for converting text case, built up over years.Software and appsHacker News, 2024
- A group of free sudoku websites that earn steady income from minimal ads.Content and mediaHands-offHacker News, 2024
- Publishes personal notes from nonfiction books on a site and earns some money from it.Content and mediaHacker News, 2024
- Created a web tool for making GIF memes with text that follows motion, after finding it hard to do elsewhere.Software and appsHands-offHacker News, 2022
- A solitaire site that began as a Mac app, found by looking for popular apps with poor reviews, and now supports the owner.Software and appsHacker 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
- 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
- Built job listing sites and blogs that run mostly automatically and cover expenses with ads and sponsorships.Hands-offHacker News, 2021
- Posts weekly programming problem tutorials on YouTube and earns from ad revenue.Content and mediaHacker News, 2021
- A coupon site for developers plus a set of single-purpose web tools such as encoders and HTML cleaners.Hands-offHacker News, 2021
- Makes coding tutorials on YouTube to support themselves while building a product, earning a small amount from the channel.Content and mediaHacker News, 2021
- 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
- Runs a weekly newsletter that satirizes the tech industry. Revenue is from advertising to the subscriber base, with live events being considered.Content and mediaHacker News, 2019
- A video published years ago that YouTube keeps recommending, paying out ad revenue with no promotion by the owner.Content and mediaHands-offHacker News, 2019
- An information site about a specific skin condition that earns from display ads and Amazon affiliate links and is mostly left on autopilot.Content and mediaHands-offHacker News, 2018
- A personal technology blog that earns small amounts from on-page advertising.Content and media$100 to $1kHacker News, 2018
- Runs a site showing historical average weather by city and month. Income so far is from ad revenue, with plans to add more features.Software and appsHacker News, 2016
- A small project built for fun that earns a little from display ads and has grown slowly.Content and mediaUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2016
- Runs a multiplayer Boggle-style game online. It earns from advertising and paid memberships.Software and appsHands-offHacker News, 2016
- Built a WordPress website for people looking up information about others. It earns from Google AdSense and needs only software updates now.Content and mediaHands-offHacker News, 2016
- Runs a set of small web apps for learning music notes, non-Latin alphabets and languages with flash cards. Income comes from ads and paid premium plans.Software and appsHands-offHacker News, 2016
- Runs a guide site for visitors interested in Silicon Valley sights. Income comes from ads.Content and mediaHands-offHacker News, 2016
- Published a how-to post on single sign-on between two business platforms on an old blog and added AdSense. Earns small ad revenue from search visitors.Content and mediaUnder $100Hands-offHacker News, 2016
- Maintains a documentation website for a jQuery plugin and earns a small amount from a single ad placed on it.Content and mediaHands-offHacker News, 2016
- Built a set of web tools for converting between data formats like CSV. Income comes mostly from Google ads plus an occasional affiliate link.A few hours a weekHacker News, 2016
- Runs a free tool that lets people make colored maps of countries and regions. Income comes from display ads and occasional donations.Software and appsHands-offHacker News, 2016
- Builds small web tools that solve narrow business problems, often around obscure shipping forms or data formatting chores. Income comes from display ads on the tools that get found.Software and appsHands-offHacker News, 2016
- Built a site that forces Google Maps links into a chosen language. Ad revenue covers its hosting.Hands-offHacker News, 2014
- An advertising-supported website running for about a decade that grew its income yearly with mostly passive upkeep.Content and mediaHands-offHacker News, 2014
- Runs a site that helps people use the LEGO pieces they own to build other models.Hacker News, 2014
- Built an Android app that added features to a popular messaging app, earning from an in-app purchase and ads until it was removed from the store.Software and appsHands-offHacker News, 2014
- Runs a niche blog about architectural models and earns from ads and Amazon affiliate links.Content and mediaHands-offHacker News, 2014
- A fan site run by a community of contributors that earns small ad revenue to offset server costs.Content and mediaHands-offHacker News, 2014
- Runs a free background picture website with steady search traffic and links from other sites, earning from AdSense.Content and mediaHands-offHacker News, 2014
- Hosts a forum and website for a nonprofit, in exchange for placing ads that cover the hosting costs.Content and mediaHacker News, 2014
- Built a content website covering a niche in a non-US market, with a lot of long-tail search traffic monetized by AdSense.Content and mediaA few hours a weekHacker News, 2014
- Built a credit card validation plugin with a demo site that earns small ad revenue.Content and mediaHands-offHacker News, 2014
- Runs a blog that lists a jQuery plugin each day and earns from advertising.Content and mediaUnder $100Hacker News, 2014
- Runs blogs on local sports and politics, with posts built from repackaged government data, earning from AdSense.Content and mediaUnder $100Hacker News, 2014
- A logo design gallery where designers submit work, earning from ads and ad network placements.Content and mediaHacker News, 2014
- A humor blog on Tumblr earning from ads.Content and mediaUnder $100Hacker News, 2014