Ranking Side Hustles I’ve Tried From Worst To Best

I get emails every single day asking me the same question: where should I start? Is this side hustle worth it? What about that one? After seven or eight years of trying to make money online, I have personal experience with nine different side hustles across three tiers. Some were a complete waste of time. Some were decent starting points. And three of them are what I am actively doing right now to build real income. In this post I am going to rank every single one of them, from worst to first, with the honest reasons why.

Before I get into the list, I want to be upfront about something. Most people start with the worst options on this list because they look like the fastest path to cash. I made that mistake myself, spending four hours on a couch one day trying to earn money from ads while my wife was pregnant with twins. What came out of those four hours? Less than twenty dollars. If you are newer to the online income world, save yourself that experience and read this all the way through first.

What You’ll Walk Out With

A ranked list of 9 real side hustles I personally tried, from absolute waste of time to genuinely life-changing
The specific income numbers from each one, including what Udemy actually pays per course sale and what Fiverr is really worth per hour
Why surveys, Amazon Mechanical Turk, and Fiverr are three options you should run away from
How building five-page WordPress websites can realistically generate $9,000 per month
The difference between selling courses on Udemy versus selling them yourself, and why the gap in earnings is enormous
Why affiliate marketing sits at the top of the list and how to start it with no product of your own
A decision framework to figure out which tier you should start with based on your situation
A free quiz to identify the specific online business model that fits your existing skills at finder.platformproof.com

Tier 1 (Worst): Run Away From These

These three are the ones I tried first. They show up constantly in search results when you type “how to make money online,” which is exactly why so many people fall into them. Every single one of them sounds reasonable until you do the math on your actual hourly rate.

1. Completing Surveys and Watching Ads

This is the absolute bottom of the list. If you have spent any time on YouTube looking for ways to make money online, you have seen videos claiming you can make $200 per day by watching ads or completing surveys. That number is not real. My real number from a full four-hour session sitting on the couch: less than twenty dollars.

The experience was demoralizing in ways that are hard to overstate. You go through the setup process for a survey, which can take 20 minutes on its own, and then you get told you are not qualified. Or you get partway through and a glitch wipes your progress. Or you finish it and find out the payout is almost nothing. I literally fell asleep doing it because the tasks are so monotonous there is nothing to keep your brain engaged. If you are serious about making money online, protect your hours. Do not spend them watching ads for pennies.

2. Amazon Mechanical Turk (and Other Micro-Task Platforms)

Amazon Mechanical Turk is the second result that comes up almost every time someone searches for online income, and it is nearly as bad as surveys. The premise is that you complete small, discrete tasks in exchange for micro-payments. The keyword there is “micro.” You are making pennies on the dollar for tasks that eat up large chunks of time.

MTurk is not alone in this space. There is PicoWorkers, MicroWorkers, and an entire category of platforms built around the same model. Some people actually join Reddit communities like r/beermoney just to figure out which tasks are slightly less bad than the others. That alone tells you something: if your strategy requires finding the least-terrible option inside a category that is already bad, the category itself is not worth your time.

The real cost is opportunity cost. Every hour you spend completing micro-tasks for micro-money is an hour you could have spent building something with compounding value. You could have recorded a TikTok. You could have started outlining a YouTube channel. You could have drafted your first blog post. The time is real. The micro-task income is barely real.

3. Fiverr

Fiverr is where I personally got burned the hardest in Tier 1, because I thought I had an edge. My background is in software development, and I hold an AWS (Amazon Web Services) certification, which is a genuinely difficult and valuable credential in the tech industry. People with that certification can command serious money in the job market.

Not on Fiverr. On Fiverr, my skills were worth $50 at most. Clients would reach out and ask me to set up complex cloud networks, configure infrastructure, and complete hours-long technical tasks, all for a flat $50. Because I needed the money at the time, I said yes. When I did the math after completing those tasks, I was making less than three dollars per hour. And that was before accounting for Fiverr’s cut, which comes from both sides of the transaction, both the buyer and the seller.

The core problem with Fiverr is that it is structurally designed as a race to the bottom. You are competing against thousands of other sellers, and the platform name itself signals to buyers that they should expect to pay almost nothing. Your skills could be worth hundreds of dollars per hour in the right context. Fiverr is not that context. The time I spent completing those $50 tasks could have gone into building a YouTube channel that would pay me $50 over and over again in multiple ways.

Tier 2 (Middle): These Can Work, But There Are Better Options

Tier 2 is where things get more nuanced. These are not traps in the same way Tier 1 was. They can generate real income, and under the right circumstances they might be worth starting with. But each one has a structural ceiling or a core problem that limits how far you can take it.

4. Etsy

I ran an Etsy shop selling digital products, and the honest verdict is: it is both better and worse than most people expect. The good side is that Etsy has massive built-in traffic. It functions like a search engine, it has brand recognition, and customers on Etsy are actively looking to buy. You do not have to build an audience from scratch. You can upload a digital planner, set a price, and start showing up in search results.

But the structural problem is that Etsy is a race to the bottom. The moment a type of product starts selling well, hundreds of other sellers flood into that niche and start undercutting each other. Products that could be sold for $15 or $20 end up listed for $2 or $3. Etsy also takes fees from both the listing side and the transaction side, which further compresses your margin. You also have to play the platform’s SEO game, manage reviews, and deal with a buyer base that has been conditioned to expect near-free products.

One hack worth knowing: if you deliver a digital product through Etsy, you can include a link in the file itself that points to another product you are selling. A digital planner, for example, could include a link to a companion worksheet or a productivity course. That gives you a small way to squeeze more revenue out of each sale. But for serious income, the platform constraints still hold you back.

5. Udemy

Udemy has a similar dual personality to Etsy. On the positive side, it is a credibility booster. Having a course on Udemy signals to people that you are a legitimate instructor in your field. The platform brings buyers to you. And I still receive checks from Udemy monthly for courses I created a year ago, which is a real form of passive income.

The negative side is the pricing structure, which is brutal. Udemy locks most courses in at a maximum sale price of $9.99. Depending on how the customer purchased the course, you could make anywhere from $2.50 to $7 per sale. If Udemy surfaces your course through one of its own promotions, you earn the lower end of that range, around $2.50 per course. Think about what that means: you could spend 20 hours building a genuinely high-quality course, and each sale earns you $2.50.

The review system is brutal too. Without strong five-star ratings, Udemy’s algorithm buries your course so deep it becomes nearly impossible to find. High chargeback rates are another issue, because the low price attracts buyers who will consume the entire course and then request a refund. The one legitimate use case for Udemy that I took advantage of: I offered a bonus inside my course that directed students to an external landing page where they could opt into my email list. That made Udemy useful as a list-building tool even when the direct revenue was disappointing.

6. Building WordPress Websites

This one stands out from the rest of Tier 2 because the income ceiling is genuinely high. Building simple five-page WordPress websites for local businesses, service providers, and other clients is something you can charge $3,000 or more for, and the actual build time on a five-page site is around three hours once you get efficient. That math works out to roughly $1,000 per hour of active build time.

The workflow is simpler than most people imagine. Once you have a paying client, you go to a site like ThemeForest, download a professional WordPress theme that fits their industry, customize it with their content and branding, and deliver it. You do not need years of web development experience. The gaps in your knowledge can be filled with a YouTube search or a quick Google. If you can find answers and apply them, you can do this job.

Three clients per month at $3,000 each equals $9,000. That is a real number that real people are hitting with this approach. The problem is the main constraint: you have to continuously find new clients. The moment your client pipeline runs dry, your income stops. You also have to manage the inevitable client-service headaches. Clients who have seen what’s possible on other websites will want features that were not in the original scope. Last-minute change requests pile up. And some clients will ghost you after you have completed most of the work, which is why I always recommend collecting at least 50 percent upfront. I had a church pull that move on me, and it is not an experience I would wish on anyone.

WordPress website building belongs in Tier 2 and not Tier 1 because the income is real and the ceiling is meaningful. It belongs in Tier 2 and not Tier 3 because the income is not passive, and the client-acquisition treadmill never stops.

Not sure which of these nine side hustles fits your specific situation?

Take the free 60-second quiz at finder.platformproof.com and get a personalized recommendation based on the skills and time you already have.

Tier 3 (Best): What I Am Actually Doing Now

These three are the ones I recommend without hesitation. Each one has something the Tier 1 and Tier 2 options mostly lack: compounding power. You do the work once and it continues to generate income. You are not trading hours for dollars in a 1:1 relationship. And you are not handing 30 to 50 percent of your earnings to a platform that treats you like a commodity.

7. Selling Your Own Digital Products

I mentioned Etsy earlier as a place where you can sell digital products. The issue with Etsy is the race to the bottom. When you sell your digital products directly, outside of any marketplace, you control everything: the price, the marketing, the customer relationship, and the back-end offers.

Consider what that looks like in practice. A digital planner sold on Etsy might be priced at $3 because that is what the competitive market on that platform has pushed prices down to. The exact same digital planner sold from your own storefront, promoted with organic content on TikTok or YouTube, can be priced at $17. That is a 5x difference in revenue per sale before you even get into the back-end opportunities.

The back end is where things get really interesting. When someone buys your digital product directly from you, you have their email address and the beginning of a customer relationship. You can follow up with them, offer them complementary products, recommend affiliate tools that solve adjacent problems, and build a customer base that buys from you again. On Etsy, that relationship mostly stays inside the platform. When you own the channel, you own the relationship.

The product options are genuinely unlimited. Calculators, printables, templates, planners, swipe files, checklists, Notion dashboards, Canva templates, spreadsheet tools. Whatever skills or knowledge you have, there is almost certainly a digital product version of it that someone will pay for. You create it once, upload it to a Google Drive folder or a simple delivery platform, and it sells 24 hours a day without your active involvement in each transaction.

8. Creating and Selling Your Own Online Courses

The gap between selling a course on Udemy and selling a course yourself is enormous, and not just in the obvious way. Yes, you keep a much larger percentage of each sale when you sell directly. But the bigger difference is in how you can price the course and how you can structure what comes after it.

That same course that Udemy caps at $9.99 can be sold for $49, $97, or $197 on your own platform, depending on the depth of the content and the audience you are reaching. There is always a segment of the market that is willing to pay a premium price for a well-structured learning experience. The people who pay more are also more likely to complete the course, get results, leave positive reviews, and buy future products from you.

Inside your own course, you can embed affiliate offers for tools your students will need. You can pitch a follow-up course that goes deeper. You can include bonus sessions, community access, or coaching upsells. You cannot do any of that on Udemy without violating their policies. When you own the platform, the course becomes the beginning of a customer journey, not just a one-time transaction.

The subject matter does not have to be about business or technology. There are successful courses built around basket weaving, scrapbooking, leadership development, fitness, cooking, language learning, pet training, and hundreds of other topics. If there is something you know well enough to teach, there is an audience that wants to learn it. The only real requirements are that the content is structured logically, that students can follow a clear path through it, and that they come out the other side with something genuinely useful. Keep the content substantial enough that people feel they got their money’s worth, but tight enough that they do not feel overwhelmed before they finish.

9. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing sits at the top of my list for one simple reason: you do not need a product. You start today, without creating anything, by recommending products and services that already exist and already have proven buyer demand.

The mechanic is straightforward. Someone is searching for information about a product. Maybe it is a Ring indoor camera. Maybe it is a software tool. Maybe it is a course on learning guitar. You create content, a video, a blog post, a TikTok, that helps them understand that product: the strengths, the weaknesses, who it is right for, who it is not. You include an affiliate link. When they click that link and make a purchase, you earn a commission. You never touch the product. You never handle shipping or returns. You never field customer service complaints.

Affiliate marketing scales well because the content you create today can keep driving traffic and commissions for months or years. A YouTube video reviewing a product from two years ago might still rank in search and send buyers to a merchant every week. That compounding effect is what Tier 1 and Tier 2 largely cannot offer.

It also layers cleanly on top of the other Tier 3 options. If you are running a YouTube channel, you can earn money from the YouTube Partner Program while also embedding affiliate links in your descriptions. If you are selling a digital course, you can recommend affiliate tools inside the course content. The income streams compound rather than compete.

Honest Drawbacks of the Tier 3 Options

I want to be straight with you about what the top tier actually requires, because there are real challenges that surface quickly when people start without knowing what to expect.

Digital products require traffic. The product itself can be excellent, but if no one sees it, nothing sells. You need a content strategy, an audience, or paid advertising to get eyes on your offer. That is a real skill that takes time to develop.

Courses require structure and follow-through. Completion rates on online courses are notoriously low even for paid content. You need to design the course so that each lesson builds clearly on the previous one and students feel momentum as they move through it. If the structure is poor, you will get refund requests regardless of how good the underlying content is.

Affiliate marketing requires trust and volume. Commissions on individual sales are often modest, which means you need consistent traffic to generate consistent income. Building that traffic takes time. It also requires that your audience genuinely trusts your recommendations, which means you cannot fake enthusiasm for products you do not actually believe in. The audience will feel it.

None of these challenges are reasons to avoid Tier 3. They are reasons to go in with realistic expectations about the timeline. Most people who burn out on affiliate marketing or digital products quit too early, before the compounding effect of their content library has had time to show up in their numbers.

How to Decide Where to Start

Here is a simple framework based on where you are right now:

If you need income in the next 30 days and have a technical or professional skill: WordPress websites from Tier 2 are your fastest legitimate path. Find one client, charge $1,500 to $3,000, deliver a simple five-page site, get the result under your belt.
If you have a skill or knowledge base and 3 to 6 months to build: Start with a digital product or a course. Pick one topic, create one product, and spend your energy driving traffic to it rather than constantly creating new products.
If you want income with no product requirement and you are comfortable creating content: Affiliate marketing is your entry point. Pick a niche, pick two or three products in that niche you actually use or believe in, and start creating content around them.
If you are tempted by surveys, Amazon Mechanical Turk, or Fiverr: Step away. Use that same time to start a content channel, even if it is just three videos or three blog posts. The long-term value of that content will eclipse anything the micro-task platforms can offer.

Find Your X

Every person reading this has a different skill set, a different amount of available time, and a different income goal. The right starting point for you is not necessarily the top-ranked option on this list. It is the option that fits where you actually are right now and the skills you already have.

Take 60 seconds at finder.platformproof.com to find out which online business model fits your situation. The quiz is free, it takes less than a minute, and it gives you a specific recommendation based on your answers rather than a generic list.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are surveys ever worth doing for any reason?

Not as an income strategy. After four hours and less than twenty dollars in a single session, the math does not work under any realistic conditions. If you enjoy them purely as a time-filler while watching TV and have zero income expectations, that is one thing. As a deliberate effort to build income, the time cost far outweighs the return.

Why does Fiverr work well for some people but not for you?

It is primarily a volume and skill-type issue. Fiverr works better for people doing high-volume, low-time tasks where the five-dollar or fifty-dollar rate does not translate to a terrible hourly figure. For complex, time-intensive technical work like cloud infrastructure setup, the math breaks down fast. My AWS certification was genuinely valuable. Fiverr’s pricing structure did not reflect that value.

How do you find WordPress website clients if you are just starting out?

Local businesses are the most accessible starting point. Restaurants, real estate agents, service contractors, and small retailers frequently need websites and do not know where to look. Facebook groups for local business owners, LinkedIn outreach, and even walking into businesses and asking if they have a site are all legitimate approaches. Getting one client and delivering solid work creates referral opportunities.

Does it make sense to sell on Etsy while also selling directly?

It can, especially in the early stages when you have no audience of your own. Etsy’s built-in traffic can generate your first sales and give you proof that your product works before you invest in building your own platform. The risk is becoming dependent on Etsy and never developing the direct channel. Treat Etsy as a testing ground and a lead source, not your primary business infrastructure.

What is the actual earnings range from Udemy when the platform recommends your course?

When Udemy promotes your course through its own marketing channels or deals, your share drops to around $2.50 per sale. When a buyer comes through your own affiliate link or referral, your share goes up to around $7, which is still low on a $9.99 course. The structure heavily favors Udemy over the instructor, which is why the platform works better as an email-list building tool than as a primary income stream.

What kind of digital products sell consistently online?

Templates and tools with clear, immediate utility tend to perform well because the buyer can see the value before purchasing. Canva templates, spreadsheet calculators, resume frameworks, printable planners, legal document templates, and productivity systems are all categories with proven buyer demand. The best digital product is one that solves a specific, recurring problem for a clearly defined group of people.

How long does it take to start earning from affiliate marketing?

That depends almost entirely on how quickly you can build traffic. Someone who already has an audience on YouTube or a newsletter can see affiliate income within weeks. Someone starting from zero with no existing audience should plan for three to six months of consistent content creation before seeing meaningful numbers. The upside is that the content compounds: posts and videos published in month one keep generating traffic and commissions in month twelve.

Is it better to pick one Tier 3 method or try to do all three at once?

Start with one. The common mistake is spreading effort across all three simultaneously and executing none of them well enough to get traction. Pick the option that matches your current skills and situation most closely, go deep on it until you have real results, and then layer in the others. Affiliate marketing pairs especially naturally with digital products and courses because the same content that drives buyers to one offer can introduce them to the others.

Sources

Alston Godbolt, Platform Proof YouTube channel; original video “Ranking Side Hustles I’ve Tried From Worst To Best”: https://youtu.be/2P7jWVZnp2Y
Amazon Mechanical Turk platform overview: https://www.mturk.com
Udemy instructor revenue share documentation: https://support.udemy.com/hc/en-us/articles/229232067
ThemeForest WordPress themes marketplace: https://themeforest.net
Etsy seller fee structure: https://www.etsy.com/seller-handbook/article/understanding-etsy-fees

Helping 1 million working adults make their first $3,000 online with the skills they already have. Alston Godbolt, Platform Proof.