These Are the Side Hustles That Made Me $750,000

I found that the easiest way to make money outside my day job was just to experiment with different side hustles. I just pick one that suits me and give it a go. Some to great, some less so, but almost all of them make at least some money. Very few fail outright.

I see these as experiments, so don’t have any expectations at the start. That stops me getting emotionally attached to them. If they fail, I also don’t care. After all, some experiments fail. You should expect that.

It’s important to note that I did these while I had a day job. I earned a great salary, so didn’t do these side hustles because I needed the money. Side hustle income was extra money that I invested. It meant they were pretty stress-free because I wasn’t focused on the money part.

So, here's what I've tried:

• Ecommerce - my biggest success - I will do this again soon if I can find good products - finding products is the hardest part - I earned $500,000 from this over 3 years - it made double all the other side hustles combined

• Rental properties - I had around 8, and all have been sold because the return is no longer worth the work involved - not sure how much I made in total because they were spread over many years

• Travel blog - the first one did pretty well and made $60,000 over 3 years - the next two failed - I will never start another travel blog

• Flipping AdSense sites - I built sites, added AdSense, then sold them - they did pretty well over a couple of years - around 30 out of 50 sites made money - total made was around $20,000 - I wouldn’t do this again because it’s too difficult these days

• Domain sales - the best sale made $5,000 profit - most sales were 3-figures - I still have a few domains but no longer do this seriously - I’d happily buy more if I spotted some good ones - made around $6,000 profit in a year - one domain made nearly all the profit

• Selling backlinks - this was easy and lucrative back in the day - it’s much harder now - I made around $10,000 in 6 months before a Google update more or less killed this industry

• Writing on Medium - I did this for 2.5 years and made $9,500 from writing over 600 articles - I moved the articles to a series of blogs that I sold for around $2,000

• Selling ebooks - I only have one (Side Hustle Blueprint) and it’s made around $400 in 6 months - I plan to publish a few more - this can be a good side hustle if you like writing and can build a portfolio of books

Most of the income from the above was invested into the following. This is how I end up getting passive income to live off.

• Crypto - my biggest earner these days - almost impossible to fail if you buy and hold crypto like BTC, ETH, and SOL for 10+ years

• Index funds - slow and steady - these grow consistently over time - as with crypto, this is a buy and hold strategy

• HYSA - I sold my property and stashed my money here - I’m currently renting because it's cheaper than buying - I also move around a lot so don’t want to be tied down to one place

I like variety. I don't like doing one side hustles for too long. My longest side hustles have been for 3 years. I usually get bored within a year or so.

How about you? What side hustles have you tried? What worked? What didn’t? I’m always looking for new ideas, so please share yours.

More info

For more info, check out my Side Hustle Blueprint.