If you have spent any time in the online side hustle space, you have heard the same three topics over and over: health, wealth, and relationships. Go create content about making money online, they say. Start a fitness channel. Post relationship advice. These are the categories that every creator and course seller defaults to, and the result is a crowded field where the people already at the top are almost impossible to dislodge.
Alston Godbolt went looking for something different. In this video, he researched five niches that almost no one in the side hustle space is currently talking about. Low competition, real demand, and real income potential. If you are tired of chasing the same crowded lanes, these five ideas are worth your full attention.
What You’ll Walk Out With
- Why niche software YouTube channels generate enormous views with very small subscriber counts
- How hyper-specific online courses can own keywords that broad courses completely miss
- Why translation content in less-competitive languages produces some of the best view-to-subscriber ratios on YouTube
- What elderly care consultation actually involves and what families will pay for it
- Why the $20 billion funeral industry is nearly untouched as an online content niche
- A framework for picking the one side hustle that matches your current skills and comfort level
- How to find the platform and income stream that fits what you already know at finder.platformproof.com
Why Generic Side Hustle Advice Keeps Failing You
The problem with health, wealth, and relationships is not that there is no money there. The problem is that the people telling you to enter those spaces already have a large platform in those spaces. They benefit when you buy their courses about making money online, and they benefit when the space stays crowded because it keeps beginner attention flowing toward them.
Alston’s approach in this video is different. He went to YouTube, Udemy, and Google and looked at actual search data to find niches where demand is clearly outpacing the number of creators. High views, low subscriber counts, no dominant brand. That combination is what you are looking for, and the five niches below all show it.
Side Hustle 1: Niche Software YouTube Channels
This is the first side hustle covered in the video, and it is one Alston personally recommends. The idea is straightforward: pick a widely-used business software that has an affiliate program, become the go-to tutorial channel for that software on YouTube, and monetize through affiliate commissions and eventually a paid course.
Salesforce is the example used in the video. Salesforce is a CRM tool used by Fortune 500 companies, and it has a steep learning curve. Employees at major corporations get stuck using it constantly. When they do, they go to YouTube to find answers. Alston searched “how to install Data Loader in Salesforce” and found a top result with 29,000 views from a channel with only 8,000 subscribers. A second video on the same topic had 5,000 views from the same channel. That is the signal: demand is there, but not enough creators are meeting it.
The research method is simple. Type “how to [blank] in [software name]” and then replace the blank with each letter of the alphabet. You will see a long list of questions people are actively searching for. Work through each one and you have a content calendar that could keep you busy for months.
You do not need to show your face. Screen recording software and a decent microphone are enough. The audience watching a Salesforce tutorial does not care what you look like. They care whether you can explain how to create a Quick Action Button in Salesforce in under five minutes without confusing them further.
The scaling path: once your channel builds authority in that software niche, you can package your best tutorials into a masterclass and sell it. Alston mentioned a price range of $197 to $297 per course. Your audience already trusts you because you solved their problems for free on YouTube. The course is the natural next step.
Best for: People who already work in software, tech support, or operations roles, or anyone willing to spend four to six weeks genuinely learning one tool deeply before hitting record.
Side Hustle 2: Hyper-Niche Online Courses
The second opportunity Alston covers is creating an online course, but not in the broad categories that fill every course marketplace. The goal is to go narrow, not wide.
The example from the video is urban gardening. Alston searched Udemy, one of the largest course marketplaces in the world, for “urban gardening” and found that not a single result actually matched that keyword. Urban gardening is searched thousands of times per month. The demand is real. But no one has built a well-reviewed course around it. That is an open door.
The principle generalizes to dozens of other hyper-specific topics. Container vegetable gardening in small apartments. Budgeting systems for gig economy workers. Sourdough bread for people without a stand mixer. Aquarium keeping for beginners in hard-water cities. The narrower the topic, the more likely you are to find a gap in the marketplace and the more clearly you can speak to the exact person you are helping.
You do not have to rely entirely on Udemy’s internal traffic to sell the course. Alston recommends creating short-form content on TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram that shows real results. If you are teaching container gardening, film the tomato plant growing on your balcony. Show people the outcome they are buying. Platforms like TikTok give even brand-new accounts a chance to reach thousands of people for free, which means you can build a course audience before you even finish recording it.
Best for: People who have a practical skill that solves a specific problem for a defined group. The more specific the skill, the better your chances of finding a gap.
Side Hustle 3: Translation Services in Less-Competitive Languages
This is one of the two side hustles Alston says he personally likes most, and the data from YouTube search results explains why. Most people who consider language content think of Spanish, Mandarin, French, or German. Those categories have millions of videos and established channels. What about Nigerian dialects, Yoruba, or any of the hundreds of other languages spoken by significant populations around the world?
Alston pulled real search data during the video. The numbers speak for themselves:
- “How to say hello in Nigerian”: the top result had 15,000 views and the channel had only 2,000 subscribers
- “How to say good morning in Nigeria”: 2,000 views with 213 subscribers on the channel
- One channel covering Nigerian phrases had 83,000 views with only 5,000 subscribers
- A video about “how to talk like a Nigerian” had 182,000 views with just 1,000 subscribers
Those ratios are extreme by any standard. A channel with 1,000 subscribers getting 182,000 views on a single video means the content is reaching an audience far beyond the subscriber base. The reason is that people searching for this are looking for something specific. Business professionals who are working internationally, traveling, or doing deals with people from other countries are searching these phrases. They are not casual browsers. They are people with a clear, immediate need.
Monetization has three paths. First, the YouTube Partner Program once you reach 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours. Second, Fiverr, where you can offer translation services directly to businesses or individuals who need documents, scripts, or conversations translated. Third, a packaged course of the 100 most common phrases in your language, sold on Udemy or Teachable.
Alston made a point that this side hustle is especially relevant for creators outside the US who want to build something online. If you are fluent in English and a second language that is not already oversaturated with content creators, you already have the asset. You just need to start recording.
Best for: Bilingual or multilingual people, especially those whose second language is not already dominated by major creators on YouTube.
Side Hustle 4: Elderly Care Consultation
As the population in the US ages, more families are facing decisions they have never had to make before. What type of care does an aging parent need? What does insurance actually cover? How do you compare nursing homes without knowing what to look for? What happens when a grandparent needs surgery and no one in the family understands the medical or financial options?
Elderly care consultants fill this knowledge gap. You research the options, build familiarity with care facilities and insurance terminology, and then meet with families to walk them through decisions that feel overwhelming to them. You are not a licensed nurse or social worker. You are someone who has done the research and can present it clearly to people who are under stress and have no framework for making these choices.
This is not a passive income business. Every dollar you earn comes from real conversations with real clients. But that is also what keeps the competition low. Most people building online businesses want something that runs while they sleep. Elderly care consultation requires showing up for people in a genuinely hard moment, which filters out most of the competition you would face in other niches.
Families in this situation are willing to pay for guidance. The cost of making the wrong call on a nursing home placement, a long-term care insurance policy, or a surgical facility choice can be enormous. A consultant who genuinely knows the landscape and can walk a family through their options is valuable in a way that is hard to replicate with a YouTube video.
Best for: People with strong research skills, patience, and comfort speaking with clients who are under emotional strain. Healthcare workers, social workers, and people who have personally handled elder care decisions for a family member are well-positioned to start here.
Side Hustle 5: Death, Dying, and Funeral Content
This is the final side hustle in the video and Alston admits it is uncomfortable. He covers it anyway because the data is too strong to ignore. The funeral and death care industry generates $20 billion annually in the US. For context, the fitness industry, which the entire online business world tells you to target, brings in $30.6 billion. The gap is much narrower than most people realize, and the funeral niche has a fraction of the online content covering it.
The core problem that drives the demand is simple: most people have never planned a funeral. When they suddenly need to, they have no framework. They do not know the difference between a casket and a coffin, what a burial vault is, how cremation actually works, or how to compare funeral home pricing without getting taken advantage of while grieving. That ignorance is content demand waiting to be filled.
The YouTube search data Alston pulled during the video shows the scale of that demand:
- “How do cremations work”: the top result had 3.2 million views with only 8,000 subscribers on the channel
- “How do cremation funerals work”: 7.2 million views with 12,000 subscribers
- “DIY cremation jewelry”: 35,000 views with sustained interest across multiple videos
Seven million views on a channel with 12,000 subscribers is a ratio you almost never see in oversaturated niches. It tells you that people are searching for this content actively and that the creator supply is nowhere near the demand. The search is driven by immediate need, not casual browsing, which means the viewer who finds your video is genuinely engaged and ready to watch the whole thing.
Monetization comes from two places. First, the YouTube Partner Program. Ads run normally in this niche, and the search volume is substantial. Second, affiliate marketing. Sites like Trusted.com list funeral products including caskets and urns, which can cost several thousand dollars. A 3% commission on a $3,000 casket is $90 per sale. A viewer who found your video while planning a funeral is exactly the kind of person who might click through to purchase.
How to start: pull a funeral glossary from the National Funeral Directors Association or a similar reputable organization. Take each term and search it on YouTube. Find the ones with high view counts and low subscriber counts on the top results. Make a clear, honest video explaining that term. Then repeat the process.
Best for: Anyone comfortable discussing death as a practical topic rather than treating it as off-limits. Writers, educators, healthcare workers, and people who have personally been through a funeral planning experience without adequate guidance tend to find they have a lot to say in this niche.
Not sure which of these five fits your actual situation?
Answer a few quick questions and find out which platform and income model fits what you already know at finder.platformproof.com.
How to Pick the Right One for You
The five side hustles in this video cover a wide range: content creation, course building, language services, consulting, and niche affiliate content. They are not interchangeable. The one that works for you depends on what you already know, what you can learn quickly, and what kind of work you are willing to do consistently over six to twelve months.
Ask yourself three questions before picking one:
- Do I already know something specific? A software tool you use at work, a language you speak fluently, a life experience like elder care you have already been through. If yes, start there. You have a head start that most people cannot buy.
- Can I talk about this topic without making claims I cannot back up? The funeral niche requires you to be honest and careful. The course business requires you to actually be able to teach what you are selling. The translation hustle requires fluency, not approximation. Be honest with yourself about where your knowledge ends.
- Is there a clear path from content to income in this niche? Software YouTube has affiliate programs and a course endpoint. Translation has Fiverr and YouTube Partner. Funeral content has ads and product affiliate programs. If you cannot see how the income flows from the work you are doing, you will run out of motivation before you see results.
If you answer yes to all three for one of these niches, that is your starting point. Pick it and stay with it for at least six months before evaluating results.
Honest Drawbacks
Every one of these side hustles has a real downside worth knowing before you commit.
Niche software YouTube: You are building on top of another company’s product. If Salesforce changes its affiliate program, adjusts the software significantly, or gets replaced by a competitor in your target market, your content library loses relevance. You can reduce this risk by choosing software that is deeply embedded in enterprise workflows and unlikely to disappear quickly, but it is still a real dependency.
Niche online courses: If you build your audience on Udemy, Udemy controls the pricing and takes a large cut. You do not own the relationship with your students. To protect yourself, you need to move your best audience members to an email list or your own platform as quickly as possible, which adds work that most new course creators do not anticipate.
Translation services: The audience for any individual language-phrase video is genuinely niche. You may need 50 to 100 videos before your subscriber count gets large enough to hit the YouTube Partner Program threshold. Patience is required. The payoff can be real, but the timeline is long relative to some other niches.
Elderly care consultation: There is no passive income in this model. Every client you take on requires your time, your attention, and your emotional presence. If you want something that scales without your personal hours, this is the wrong side hustle. It is better understood as a service business than a content business.
Death and funeral content: Some advertisers place restrictions on content that touches on death, even when the content is informational and responsible. YouTube itself is generally fine with this niche, but you are unlikely to attract major brand sponsorships. Your monetization is almost entirely through the Partner Program and affiliate products, which is fine, but limits certain kinds of income that other niches might offer.
Find Your X
The right side hustle is not the one with the most views on YouTube or the most popular course on Udemy. It is the one that lines up with what you actually know, what you can talk about with real authority, and what you are willing to show up for consistently over a long period. All five of the niches covered in this video have that combination for someone. The question is which one has it for you.
If you want a faster way to figure that out, take the Platform Proof Finder quiz. It asks about your current skills, your available time, and the kind of work you want to do, and it shows you the platform and income model that fits. You can get started at finder.platformproof.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to be an expert to start any of these side hustles?
Not necessarily, but you need to be ahead of your audience. For software YouTube, you should know the tool well enough to troubleshoot common problems. For courses, you should have genuinely used the skill you are teaching. For translation services, fluency is required. For elder care and funeral content, you can start with research and grow your knowledge as you create. The bar is being consistently useful, not knowing everything.
How long does it take to make money from a niche YouTube channel?
Most channels take six to twelve months to reach the YouTube Partner Program threshold of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours. Affiliate income can start earlier if you include affiliate links in your video descriptions from the beginning. Realistically, plan for at least six months of consistent posting before you see meaningful income from YouTube alone.
Can I do the funeral niche if I have never worked in a funeral home?
Yes. Most of the demand in this niche comes from ordinary people who have never planned a funeral and need basic educational content. You do not need professional credentials to explain what a burial vault is, how cremation works at a general level, or how to compare pricing between funeral homes. Be transparent that you are not a licensed funeral director, and focus on the informational and practical side of the topic.
Is the translation services opportunity only for bilingual people?
Yes. This side hustle specifically requires fluency in at least one language beyond English. If you only speak English, this is not the right option from this list. Instead, look at the software YouTube channel or the niche course path, which require domain expertise rather than language skills.
What equipment do I need to start a niche software YouTube channel?
Screen recording software (OBS, Loom, or Camtasia all work), a USB microphone for clear audio, and a decent internet connection for rendering and uploading. A camera is optional. Most software tutorials perform well without any face cam because viewers are focused on the screen. Start with what you have and upgrade once the channel is generating income.
Are any of these five niches already oversaturated?
None of them are saturated in the same way that “make money online” or “personal finance” are saturated. However, some sub-niches within each one are more competitive than others. The key signal to look for is the view-to-subscriber ratio on top-performing videos. If a video in your target topic has hundreds of thousands of views but the channel has under 10,000 subscribers, that means the creator supply in that specific area is still low.
Can I combine two of these side hustles at the same time?
You can, but most people who try to split their attention early end up growing more slowly in both areas. If you are starting from zero, pick one and run with it for at least three to six months. Once it is generating consistent income and you have a system for producing content regularly, you can add a second one without sacrificing momentum in the first.
What if I live outside the United States?
All five of these side hustles are accessible from outside the US. YouTube monetizes creators worldwide, Udemy and other course platforms have global payouts, Fiverr operates internationally, and the funeral and elder care content niches have demand in any country where people age and die, which is everywhere. The translation services side hustle is especially strong for non-US creators who speak a language that English-speaking business professionals want to learn.
Read Next
If you found this breakdown useful but are still not sure which side hustle belongs at the top of your list, the next post takes a different approach. Instead of identifying low-competition niches, it ranks eight popular side hustles from worst to best based on income potential, time investment, and how quickly someone new can realistically see results.
Read: Side Hustle Ideas Tier List For Beginners: 8 Best Side Hustles Ranked Worst to First
Sources
- YouTube search data cited in Alston Godbolt’s video: view and subscriber counts for Salesforce, translation, and funeral content channels
- Udemy marketplace search results for “urban gardening” showing keyword gap
- Google search results for US funeral industry size: approximately $20 billion annually
- Google search results for US fitness industry size: approximately $30.6 billion annually
- Tailwind app for Pinterest and Instagram scheduling: tailwindapp.com
- Fiverr platform for freelance services: fiverr.com
Helping 1 million working adults make their first $3,000 online with the skills they already have. Alston Godbolt, Platform Proof.