After my last couple comments on r/sidehustle brought in a lot of questions, I decided to make this post to share some of the ways I found success earning side income.

Me: I test side hustles to determine if they're any good, then post the results. My ultimate goal is to save up enough money just from side hustles to buy a fixer-upper house. I have about $21,000ish in the slush fund now, and could buy a house with that. However, I am looking for a liiittle better than that $21k can get me.

You can learn more from my Freeloader Challenge series. This link is the most recent episode: https://youtu.be/RwLvxdhunQg

Couple caveats:

Please do NOT message me for more information. My inbox is filled with 20 people asking the same questions after the last comment. Post your questions here and I will try to help. You can also find an expanded guide on my own profile page.

Focus on a job first. Side hustles are SIDE income for beer money, hobbies, and to make ends meet while you work on improving your career. If you do not have a career at all, side income won't change much for you.

The methods

------------------------------
Shit tier (not worth doing):

- Dropshipping AliExpress

- AI art print-on-demand

- selling wooden pallets

- flipping used mattresses, any goofy YouTuber side hustle BS like that

Almost all the people making money off these are the YouTubers making videos about them and the people selling courses on them. If you yourself make money doing any of these, the amount will be negligible. There are very few people making money actually doing these things, and they have extensive experience and a network behind them. If you're here, you do not.

------------------------------

Low tier (maybe worth doing in the beginning):

- Online questionnaires: You CAN make money on these, but it is rarely worth the effort unless you have $0 and have no other source of money. This will only be used to seed other methods. If you absolutely must do this, use Attapoll. They pay you $0.01 if you get rejected by the questionnaire which happens frequently on almost every survey site. I made about $30 in a month before I gave up. Not recommended for anyone serious.

- Silly crypto games: Most of these are complete trash, but I have cashed out about $50 from apps like CoinApp in which you get paid XYO token for driving. If you typically drive long distances and have a second phone, this might be worth it. Otherwise, skip it completely. I made about $50 over a month doing this.

- Dumpster Diving for metal: Check and see if there is a metal recycling plant near you. Most suburbs and cities have something. Ask about prices on metal. Copper will fetch you about $3/lb, and aluminum about $0.50/lb. Brass is up there too. Communication wire (like CAT cables) are among the best. Don't bother with steel. The secret is to go to constructions sites where their dumpsters are out in the open and therefore are considered trash (not behind a fence, closed, or anything like that). Jump in and take metal out, then bring it to the recycling center. Check your state laws first and make sure that it is legal to dumpster dive. I am not familiar with any states where it is NOT legal, but check. I've made a few hundred off of about 10 dives like this. Average dive at a construction site yields $30.

------------------------------

Mid Tier (worth doing):

- Focus Groups: This is the best low barrier to entry option for most people. I don't think I've gone a single month since 2022 in which I haven't made at least $100 for an hour doing a focus group. Companies want feedback on a product or service for their target market. You give them this feedback and they pay you. It's simple, and you get to influence a product that you might use in the future. I prefer the website User Interviews. Make a profile there with your hobbies and career skills, and you'll get connected with focus groups that are more likely to need you. In addition to User Interviews, try Hivemind. I have made a few thousand, probably $3,000ish, over 2 years.

- Get-paid-to sites: These are the lowest barrier to entry options that are worth your time. These are websites where you get paid to play a game or use an app. It's the apps way of getting users without running marketing campaigns- they just pay you outright to use the app. You've already heard of Swagbucks. I prefer Freecash myself. The games may only pay you $20 for 10 hours of gameplay, so they're only worth it if you like mobile games. The real money is made from downloading and using banking or finance apps where it is common to get paid $100 for a few minutes of work. I have made about $5,000 over 3 years.

- Flipping free items: I use a Discord server where you get free items from Amazon merchants. Sometimes they require a review, sometimes they refund you on delivery. You get to keep the item and get refunded. They're usually not high quality items, but you can get as many phone cases and chargers as you want for no review. Higher end items will require a review to get refunded. If you are okay with inventorying, you can flip these at 100% profit. I only made about $30 flipping, but I got tons of free stuff to free up income for other things.

- Broker churning: Most brokers will give you money to invest with them as a new account. Webull is a very good one. Deposit $0.01 and they'll give you $60 of shares. You can hold them or sell them. Then, do the Schwab Starter Kit promo. Deposit $50 and they'll give you $101. Just those 2 brokers and you're up $150. There are others, but the next best is Fidelity's Starter Kit which is deposit $100 get $100 of shares. That promo is suspended but may come back. Moomoo is a distant 4th pick, which usually gives about $70 on a $1,000 deposit. There are a few others. I made about $1,000 off these, but $500 was from an expanded Moomoo bonus that is no longer active. This could still easily net you $500.

------------------------------

Top Tier (do it):

- Bank Churning: Tons of banks are willing to give you a bonus for direct depositing to them. You can do this every time you get a paycheck and never run out of banks and credit unions. PNC was an easy one- deposit $5,000 over 90 days and get $400. Use Doctor of Credit and you'll find a huge number of options with lower DD requirements. Change your DD bank often. Either make your Human Resources girl with a bachelor's degree in psychology earn her paycheck by changing your payroll for you, or deposit your other side hustle income to Chase Business bank accounts and pay yourself from those. I made about $800 so far this year doing this.

- Credit card churning: Similar to the banks, credit cards offer bonuses. "Spend $5,000 and get $500 back" is a common one. Change credit cards often to take advantage of this. You can also profit off this by "spending" money on things that get refunded like the Amazon items above, or some other means that will wash the money for you. I made about $1,100 doing this so far this year.

- Selling blood plasma: Every college town has a place where you can sell plasma. I sold mine for 3 years. This is actually a HEALTHY activity that puts money in your pocket. I used to make $20-$30 per plasma visit in 2013. Now, it's more like $60-$80/donation. If you are in good health, this is an obvious move. You can do it twice per week and make $400 in a month. Look for a Biolife, Biomat, or CSL plasma center. I did this for years and made thousands, but can't do it anymore because I live far from plasma centers.

• Counter-gambling: There are about 22 social casinos in the US. You've heard of ones like Stake. They're horrible institutions that use loopholes to make themselves "sweepstakes" instead of casinos so that they can skirt casino regulations. To be a sweepstakes, you have to be "no purchase necessary" to enter. To effect this, the “social casinos" just give you money each day to log in, adding up to about $14 total. All you have to do is log in, take the money, and log out. Don't ever actually gamble. Some of the names are Pulsz, Stake, Chumba, Luckyland, and Modo. There are more and you'll have ads for them quickly. The cons are that you have to play through the free money before you can withdraw. Achieve this by playing baccarat, blackjack, or roulette. You'll lose some of the free money, but walk out with more than 90% on most occasions. Gamble the absolute minimum required and make your withdrawal after. Most sites do gift card withdrawals around $20 and cash at $50 or $100. Stake has no playthrough requirement and you can withdraw the ~$50 minimum without playing at all. Do NOT attempt this strategy if you have had a prior gambling addiction. I don't know exactly how much I made doing this in the past 2 years, but it's over $10,000 easily.

------------------------------
Those are the top methods I've used and expect to continue doing. I'm aiming to invest it all in crackhouse refurbishment by the end of the year.