We could all use a little extra cash to spend over Christmas, and side hustles offer a great way to generate additional income. In this article, Peter Watton from matched betting company OddsMonkey shares his insight into four of the best online side hustles that you can do remotely this year.
Side hustles, or ways of making money outside of your ‘day job’, are big business. A report by Henley Business School found that more than 1 in 4 people in the UK have a side hustle, contributing £72 billion to UK incomes per year. And, with Covid-19 causing havoc for all sorts of industries, that number is surely set to rise.
From craft fairs to the stock market, there are plenty of ways to make extra cash to spend over Christmas. But as a result of the global pandemic, you may have to focus on side hustles you can do remotely this year.
Below, I’ll take you through four online methods you can use to generate some additional income this festive period that’s perfect for buying presents and other goodies.
Blogging
Blogging is one of the most popular side hustles out there, but it’s not the easiest to make money off initially. To establish yourself as an influencer, you first have to produce regular, engaging content in a consistent style and tone, attracting subscribers or followers organically. Once you achieve this, though, there are plenty of different ways to make money from your blog, including with affiliate links and sponsored posts. Are you short on time? Microblogging on social media might be a better side hustle for you.
Matched betting
If you’re not using matched betting to make money yet, it’s definitely worth looking into. Matched betting isn’t generally considered gambling because there’s little to no risk outside of human error — you just use lay bets and free bets offered by bookmakers to cover every outcome and ensure a profit every time. You can check out our matched betting guide for more advice about pulling off this side hustle but, essentially, if you put the time in you can build up a decent pot of Christmas cash.
Dropshipping
One of the most expensive overheads when it comes to retail is storage. With dropshipping, though, that cost is eradicated. As a dropshipping service, you act as a middleman: the customer places their order with you at retail price, and you organise its delivery wholesale from the supplier, pocketing the difference. Shopfiy has a guide to getting started with dropshipping that can help you set up your new business properly. You’ll need to do your research and focus mostly on marketing at first, just to get the ball rolling, but it’s a great way to make money and can even replace a full-time job.
Paid surveys
Plenty of surveys give out payment in the form of vouchers for popular stores, or even actual money paid into a digital wallet such as PayPal. All you have to do is sign up to a site, set time aside to fill them out, and it should add up. Although fake paid survey sites do exist and give the practice a bad rap, you can actually make a decent amount of money filling out questionnaires. Just stick to trusted sites like the ones on Money Saving Expert’s list.
There are lots of side hustles you can use to make more money to spend at Christmas, but these four are among the best online options — perfect for 2020. Good luck, and Merry Christmas!
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