Side gig success stories: 11 ways to earn $1000+ per month
Updated 2024-08-21. Originally published 2014-02-18 on VocationVillage.com
Would $1000 per month extra income make a difference in your financial well-being? These 11 people have a side gig that adds to their salary or self-employment income. Each of them earns an extra $1000+ per month from their side gig.
Photo by David Filipi
1. Real estate photography
David Filipi’s primary income comes from his custom mix cereal business, but because he and his partner and co-owner, Klara Filipi, needed extra cash, Filipi also built a side gig in real estate photography. David Filipi is enthusiastic about his side gig. He commented, “When you build a network, you do not have to spend on advertising, and all you need is the camera and some skill. I have no boss, I do what I love, and the hourly rate is reasonable.”
2. Blogging
Daniel Packer works full time in online advertising. For a fun side gig, he started a personal finance blog, Sweating the Big Stuff. For 6-8 months he wrote content, having no plan to earn income from his hobby. Then someone offered him $50 to run the first ad on the site. Packer recalled, “Until that point, I did not know that you could even earn anything blogging, so it was a very welcome payment, and things have taken off from there. In 18 months my earnings hit the $1000/month mark, and earnings have stayed there for over four years.”
Packer spends about 3-4 hours a week on the actual blog, but he also spends 2-3 hours per week networking with people on Twitter (now X) and commenting on other blogs. Packer added, “One of the great things that has developed from this is that now that I am confident in creating websites, I like to build other sites for fun and profit.”
3. YouTube entrepreneurship
Lue Nuwame has a full-time job is as a conveyor operator assistant at a major retailer’s distribution warehouse. As a side gig, he runs a YouTube channel, The Homemade Game Guru, that generates a second income ranging from $500 to $1200 per month. The site earns income through Google ad revenue and via licensing (a California anti-smoking television commercial uses one of his videos).
Affectionately named by his viewers, “The Madman of Cardboard,” because he makes crafts and inventions out of cardboard, Nuwame runs his YouTube channel out of his basement and living room. His channel started as a hobby in 2008, and he has created everything from an outdoor cardboard swimming pool (that held water) to a cardboard Christmas tree. The side gig has been good for Nuwamenot just for money, but personally as well. On one video on his channel, Nuwame credited the imagination and creativity it takes to make games with helping him to overcome a severe bout of depression.
4. Teaching English as a second language
Vannessa Wade is the founder and CEO of Connect the Dots PR, but she also brings in extra funds by teaching English to non-native speakers. Wade teaches English by using music, watching movies, and talking about events. Wade started out as a volunteer when someone asked her to help with a class. The plan was short term, but it soon expanded so that Wade was working for several different programs.
Wade reported, “The teaching led to private tutoring opportunities, too. I never had to seek clients because they literally came to me. I enjoy that there is money to be made, I can create my own hours, and I am helping other to achieve the skills they need to be successful citizens.”
5. Web page development
Lily Starling is a massage therapist in Davis, California. She is also a marketing and business coach for holistic service providers. In addition to running her two businesses, Starling has a side gig earning money in a way she never imagined she would: helping businesses by building sales pages, landing pages, and other web design to support big online launches. She said, “If you had told me three years ago that I would run a side gig like this, I would have laughed and told you I didn’t know the first thing about coding or websites.”
Flash forward three years and Starling has taken on some big web design projects. She said she still doesn’t know much code, but that knowing code isn’t required. She explained, “Technology has advanced so much in the past three years, just about anyone can take on a support role helping other business owners outsource the work they don’t need to and shouldn’t focus on. I take my existing skills in marketing and apply them to someone else’s business and along the way I’ve developed a good dash of technical know-how.”
This month, Starling’s side gig income was $1250. She advised, “Basically, your skills can always apply to a support gig for someone else. Look for a business owner that is overwhelmed and figure out how you can step in to take projects off their plate.”
6. Ghostwriting
Sarah Rickerd is Director of Marketing for funeral industry consulting firm Frazer Consultants. Her side gig is ghost writing blog posts and other content for small business owners. Rickerd likes the synergy between her company, Arbor Business Writing, and her day job because she says her ghostwriting helps her to stay on top of business and marketing trends. Rickerd started her freelance writing gig in 2007 when she was building and selling websites. One of her clients liked her writing style, and he hired her to write for multiple websites. From there, her business grew via word-of-mouth referral to a core group of 2-3 business owners that she works for today.
Rickerd recommended two resources for prospective or current freelance bloggers who want to grow their business:
7. Face painting and balloon twisting
Amie and Jason Mount live in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Jason Mount’s primary job is finishing concrete floors, and he has done that for 14 years. Amie Mount works in customer service. On the weekends, Amie Mount does professional face painting and Jason Mount does balloon twisting and decor.
Face painting by Amie Mount
Amie Mount recalled, “The very first job we did was volunteering at the local Boys and Girls Club of Aberdeen. We went in and did 208 balloons for 208 kids at no cost to get our name out there. Soon after that, a parent saw a flyer we posted and hired us. We did a lot of free advertising at first, such as flyers and Facebook posts. As soon as we got enough response, we made a business Facebook page and got some business cards. In our first year, we did a lot of vendor-type events on a pay-per-face or pay-per-balloon basis, and we handed out hundreds and hundreds of business cards.”
The Mounts are now a year and a half into their side business, and clients hire them by the hour for all kinds of events in South Dakota, Minnesota, and North Dakota. Amie Mount concluded, “We love our side job. It has been a great extra source of income, and even better than that, we create smiles everywhere we go.”
8. Parking lot clean up
Brian Winch was working as a full-time shipper and receiver for a large sporting goods retailer. The job wasn’t providing enough income, so Winch started a side gig after hours doing parking lot clean up. Soon he was making more money from his side gig than from his full-time job. Via an operations manual that he sells online at CleanLots, Winch now teaches other people how to launch and run their own service business doing parking lot clean up.
Winch emphasized that there is little risk because this business does not require specialized education or expensive equipment, and it can combine with a day job. Especially for people who hate the idea of spending more time in an office inside, this business idea is excellent.
9. Freelance writing
Nick Whitmore is CEO of an ecommerce company. When it was in the startup phase, it didn’t pay enough for Whitmore to survive. He remembered, “I had to find a side gig or lose my home and go hungry, so I started doing freelance writing via Elance (now Upwork). After 18 months of doing freelance writing, I realized I could turn writing into a business, too, so I started a writing content writing business that now earns over $1000/month.”
To launch his own writing business, he said he took the confidence he gained from working at Elance and took a leap of faith and a few hundred dollars to build and market his writing website. Whitmore described how he started with Elance, “I completed five jobs for very, very low pay. It was hard work, but I got five amazing five-star feedback comments. From that point onward, I bumped up my rates and found clients easier to come by because I had great feedback.”
For anyone wondering how to get started with freelance writing, Whitmore recommended, “Take the plunge and sign up for a site like Upwork or PeoplePerHour. There’s no risk involved whatsoever—the only investment you need to make is your time. If you have a laptop or computer and a working internet connection, you’re 66% of the way to earning a sideline as a freelance writer. The remaining 34% of the equation is a willingness to succeed.”
10. Music and worm sales
Jon Colgan is the founder of CellBreaker, a consumer protection tech company that gets consumers out of cell phone contracts with no early termination fees. CellBreaker uses a web application to automate the repeatable decisions necessary to break cell phone contracts under the carrier’s terms of service.
At night and on the weekends, Colgan plays music at bars, restaurants, weddings and corporate events. He said he will even busk occasionally. He commented, “Music as a side gig is a nice complement to my cash flow as I’m bootstrapping CellBreaker. It’s David vs. Goliath by day and David on the harp by night.”
Colgan also studied sustainability in school and he became enamored with using worms for compost. As a third revenue source, he sells worms. He described his worm business: “I discovered that happy worm populations double every 90 days. My worms are always happy. So, I started selling worms and vermicompost on Craigslist and by word-of-mouth.”
Colgan summed it up: “I’m an entrepreneur by day and musician by night. Plus, I sell worms. Contracts, music, and worms. Pretty unique combination, eh?”
11. LinkedIn profile writing
Juli Branson works full-time creating written communication to help experts gain more exposure in their field. Usually this takes the form of assisting with speeches, books, and blog posts, but recently, Branson discovered a lucrative new niche that serves as her side gig: writing LinkedIn profiles.
Branson elaborated, “While you could say it’s part of my day job, it really is not. Experts pay me thousands of dollars to help them develop their career, and only recently have they realized how important LinkedIn is. They don’t have time to take a class on how to write an effective LinkedIn profile—they prefer to pay me $500 per profile to do it.”
Branson writes 2-3 LinkedIn profiles per month, grossing an extra $1000-$1500. Branson added that when she had a couple of friends who were temporarily unemployed and really needed cash, she taught them how to write LinkedIn profiles, too. Now, when she is too busy, she sends clients to those friends and they pay her a referral fee, adding to her cash flow.
Do you have a side gig that earns $1000+/month? Please send it to me for possible inclusion in a future article.
