Side Hustles to Pay Off Debt - Thriving Wonders (2024)

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Do you have a massive amount of student loans? Do you still need to pay off that credit card from the holidays? Are you just looking for ideas to make money from home?

Even for longer payment plans, monthly payments suck. Sometimes, they’re even more than your rent.

I personally have student loan debt that I’m working to pay off right now. If you’re in the same boat as me, keep reading to learn the best side hustles to pay off debt. With these side hustles, you could even learn to make money from home full-time.

What is a Side Hustle?

First of all, what even is a side hustle?

A side hustle is a way to make money on top of your main source of employment.
It’s something you can use to supplement the income you’re already getting.

You might be thinking, “What’s the difference between a side hustle and a part-time job then?”

A side hustle is something you set the standards for. There technically isn’t a boss over you. You set the standards for what you want to do and how long you want to do it for.
You can work as little or as much as you want, although the hours you put into it aren’t going to be nearly as much as your full-time job.

Why You Need a Side Hustle

More and more people are diversifying their income streams. If you look at some of the most successful people in the world, they have multiple income streams. Paying off debt isn’t the only benefit of having a side hustle.

There are a few different reasons you should start a side hustle

• You can pay off debt
• You can explore your interests
• You can have an extra safety net
• You can spend extra money
• You can save it for retirement
• You can turn it into a full-time job you love
• Make money from home

How to Find a Side Hustle

For this, we’re specifically talking about online side hustles that can make money from home. You’ll find most of these side hustles online, but also network and see what you can find!

Keep reading to learn more, but you can find side hustles on places like Fivver, Upwork, and even job sites like Indeed.

Side Hustles to Pay Off Debt in 2020

Now let’s get into some of the best side hustles to pay off debt! Want the quick version? Sign up below to get the E-book and other resources in my free resource library!

Proofread

One of my favorite side hustles to talk about is proofreading. If you enjoy spotting errors in writing and fixing them, this side hustle is for you!

Proofreading entails looking for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. You can also be an editor, which is a little different. As an editor, you actually go in and change the content to make it more readable.

There are several ways you can get started with proofreading.

The first way is through freelancing, which I’ll get into more later. You can find freelancing sites where you can add your service and people will pay you for it. You can do this through sites like Upwork or Fivver.

You can also create your own website and market your services on there.

Some of the requirements needed to be a proofreader are:

• You should love to read
• Master English (spelling, punctuation, grammar, and syntax)
• Be detail-oriented
• Be able to manage time
• Be able to market yourself

Maybe the first thing you think when you hear “proofreading” is “master’s degree in English.”
But you’d be wrong!

Proof reading isn’t just learning English though. You also have to learn how to market your services.

Caitlin Pyle put together an amazing course on proofreading. She not only teaches you about the skills needed to proofread, but also how to start your own proofreading business!

Starting your proofreading business is how you’re really going to get the biggest bang for your buck.

Caitlin’s put together a free online workshop that answers all of the most common
questions about becoming a proofreader, and she even shows you how to use the most popular tools used by proofreaders around the world.

Take a look here: Proofread Anywhere

Freelance

This is the side hustle that I hear about most often, and there’s a reason for that. You may have heard of freelance writing, but that’s not all there is.

Two of the most common freelance websites are Fivver and Upwork.
All you do is set up a profile, set up a gig, and then people can search for and find your service.

If you think you don’t have the skills for freelance work, think again. You can write, take pictures, edit photos, write captions, proofread, make graphics, and anything else someone might need.

Blogging

If you look up side hustles, blogging is guaranteed to come up.

I’ll come right out and say that you’re not going to make money immediately. It takes time to build traffic.

But once you do, you can make crazy amounts of money straight from your home.
Here are some of the blog income reports I’ve read:

• Cassie Scroggins broke $3,000/month
• Fit Mommy in Heels made $11,562 in one month
• Caroline Vencil made over $25,000 in one month
• Ell from Boss Girl Bloggers made $80,000
• It’s a Lovely Life made $2,233,236 in 2019

You can learn more here, but the general steps to starting a blog are:

• Pick a niche and name
• Buy hosting (preferably Bluehost because they’re the cheapest)
• Design you blog
• Optimize for SEO
• Start writing blog posts
• Promote your blog

How to Make Money Blogging

There are a few different ways you can make money blogging.

The first way that comes to mind is through ad revenue. You can place ads on your website through places like Adsense and Mediavine.

Another way you can make money blogging is through sponsored posts. You can reach out to companies or sometimes they will reach out to you to talk about a product or service on your blog.

The most common way to make money on a blog is through affiliate marketing, which I’ll talk about next.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is when you promote someone else’s products or service and get paid for it.

A lot of affiliate marketing companies require you to have a blog, but that’s not always a requirement.

If you don’t have a blog, you can promote affiliate products on social media sites. All you have to do is post the link, and if someone buys something from that link, you will get a commission from that.

My favorite affiliate market programs for beginners are Clickbank and Flexoffers. Both of these sites offer a marketplace of services and products you can promote to earn commission.

If you want to learn more about how to make money with affiliate marketing, Clickbank even has it’s own course that you can access here. <<

Teach Online

Another well-known side hustle to pay off debt is teaching online. I like this because it’s a quick way to make money online.

The best website for this is VIP Kid. VIP Kid allows you to each English to students living in China.

This is perfect for teachers if you’re looking for a little extra money.

This is a legitimate job that you can choose the hours for.

Put in an application, interview, do the training, and get started teaching.
The things you will need include good internet, a headset, a webcam, and it’s also good to have props.

Transcribe or Caption

Transcribing and captioning are perfect side hustles. You can randomly get on throughout the day and choose to transcribe or caption something.

My favorite websites to use are Transcribeme, Rev, GMR Transcription, and GoTranscript.

One thing to keep in mind is that they don’t pay very well. You can paid by the audio hour. The quality is often bad, and if you’re a slow typer, this may not be for you.
This is one of my favorite ways to make a few bucks if I feel guilty about buying a shirt or something cheaper.

Start a YouTube Channel

This is another side hustle that you can start now that is similar to blogging.

You can make money on YouTube through ads, affiliate marketing, and sponsorships.

A lot of people prefer watching videos to reading, so in some ways it’s easier to gain more traction.

Just like a blog, you need to choose a niche and start making good quality videos. That means if you don’t already have them, you’ll have to invest in a good camera and microphone.

You also have to promote your channel to get out there. If this is something you’ve always wanted to do, go for it!

Virtual Assistant

What is a virtual assistant? A virtual assistant is someone who provides services to business or companies. It’s pretty much the same thing as an administrative assistant, but you do this from home

Some of the tasks you could be doing as a virtual assistant include:

• Data entry
• Email management
• Customer support
• Graphic design
• Marketing
• Social media management

Keep in mind you don’t need to have all of these skills to become a virtual assistant. You can create your own virtual assistant business to set your own services, hours and pay.

You can learn how to become a virtual assistance with the the 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistance Success course.

Sell Digital Products

Selling digital products is one of the side hustles to pay off debt that I recently came across.

More and more people are buying digital products. I was surprised when I looked into and saw how much people were making from digital products.

The best thing about selling digital products is that the only overhead is your time.
You don’t have to pay for materials. You just create them on your computer or phone.

Some examples of digital products you can sell are:

• Presets
• Fonts
• Canva Templates
• Planners
• Digital art

Print On-Demand

This is the most recent side hustle gig I’ve tried.

Print on demand (POD) is when you design a product and submit it to a company, and then they make and ship it to the customer.

The most common POD companies are Printify and Printful. I chose to go with Printful, but the companies are about the same.

I spent a few weeks making designs to go on t-shirts. I created the mockups on the Printful website and opened an Etsy store. I connected my Printful to Etsy so it automatically uploaded the designs.

Now I don’t have to touch anything except customer service.

I even got two sales in my first week!

Sell a Course

If you haven’t learned yet, the best way to make money is to add value.

One of the best ways you can do that is through selling a course. People are looking for information on a certain topic, and they’re willing to pay for it.

If you do create a course, make sure it’s something you know a lot about so you can really add value and not waste money. It may sound difficult, but you can easily learn how to create an online course. There are even courses about how to create an online course!

You can sell courses on an online learning platform like Teachable and Udemy.
It could be about things like blogging, parenting, growing social media, or whatever you’re interested in.

People make millions from selling courses, and it’s another method that has a low over-head cost.

Digital Marketing

The digital marketing industry is constantly growing.

Companies are relying less on things like billboards and more on things like digital marketing.

You can offer your services to local (or not) businesses to create and run their ads and social media for them.

You don’t need a degree. There are tons of online resources where you can learn about things like creating ads and copywriting.

If you start your own business, you can set the pay and often often you want to work.

Write an E-book

This is one of those digital products that you sell and make a lot of money from years later.

Once you write the book, you can just sit back and watch the money come in.
Publishing an E-book is now easier than ever with all of the software that’s available today.

Write about something you’re passionate about that can add value and you’re gold.

Writing a book sounds daunting, but there are resources that can teach you how to write a book online using an E-book creator.

Sell Photos Online

Do you love photography? You can make it one of your side hustles to pay off student debt.

I’m not talking about opening your own studio. I’m talking about making money from your photography online.

You can take pictures in the comfort of your own home and sell them as stock images or prints.

Bloggers like myself will pay money to have nice looking photos for Pinterest.

Rent out a Room

This is probably the most unique side hustle you’ll find here.

Yes, you can totally rent out a room in your house!

It can seem a little scary and weird, but more and more people have been doing this!
If there is an empty room in your house, you can rent it out to someone on Airbnb.
People are looking for a place to stay, and this is a great way to give them that.

Amazon FBA

I put this one later on down the list because it can cost quite a bit to get started.

Amazon FBA is fulfillment by Amazon. You choose products to store in an Amazon warehouse and they store, pack, ship, and deal with customer service.

You have to pay to get the products to sell and you also have to pay to have it stored and shipped from their warehouse.

Even though it can be costly to start, this is a great way to make money on the side from home.

There are a lot of resources out there teaching you how to find products to sell and more about Amazon FBA in general.

Start an Online Business

Another good way to start a side hustle is by starting an online business.

You can start whatever kind of business you want! Try selling homemade crafts, recipe cards, clothes you’ve made, thrifted clothes, and so much more!

Consider incorporating drop shipping and selling digital products like I talked about earlier to sell.

The majority of people set up their store on Shopify, but there are other platforms like Woocommerce and Wix.

Keep in mind that some of these storefronts require monthly payments, so the overhead cost can be a little pricey.

Ad Evaluator

One of the best ways I’ve been able to save money to pay off student loan debt is by becoming an ad evaluator.

I signed up with Appen, and I rate ads on Instagram for one hour 5 days a week. You can make up to $250 a month with this specific project, but you can also sign up for other projects that give you more hours.

Amazon Mturk

Amazon Mturk is a website where you complete micro-tasks to make money.

Although you make very little money, it can add up to give you an extra boost. Someone requests a task, like taking surveys, transcribing, and a myriad of other tasks.

Another con is that it can be hard to get accepted, so you may want to stick with the other side hustles to pay off debt.

I hope you enjoyed these side hustles to pay off debt!

Let me know in the comments if you have used or want to try any of these side hustles to pay off debt or make money from home.