Today, you’re going to learn about 5 easy side hustles for bloggers.
A good side hustle for bloggers has these qualities:
- It’s an additional revenue stream
- It promotes your blog
- It builds your brand presence and authority
- It’s easy to start
- It usually has a writing element, because bloggers are good at writing
And FYI: I don’t mention newsletters here, because I consider them part of the typical blogger’s ecosystem already, and I don’t look at them as a side hustle. I look at them as an extraordinary marketing tool for your blog.
Now let’s dive in.
Table of Contents
Write on Medium
The first side hustle for bloggers I want to talk about is writing on Medium.
Medium is a content platform where readers have to pay $5 a month to use it, and this money is distributed to writers on the platform through the Medium partner program.
Medium is meant for storytelling and sharing actionable advice for personal growth. Readers don’t mind paying the $5 fee because of its ad-free user experience.
One of my favorite examples of a blogger who uses Medium is Victoria Kurichenko. She owns the website Self-made millennials, where she provides SEO services, resources, and tips.
She promotes her blog on Medium by sharing stories about her life and experiences as an independent SEO consultant, and she weaves her website into the conversation during the process.
Overall, Medium is an effortless, even fun way to promote your blog, even if you write once a week. It’s also a great way to make money with:
- Affiliate marketing
- Digital products
- Online services
So, check out Medium if you want to expand your audience make more money from writing!
Start a Podcast
Starting a podcast is arguably the easiest side hustle for bloggers. It can be a money-printing machine, and it’s a great way to send traffic back to your website.
Podcasting is also an exceptional way to build trust with your audience. They listen to your podcast while they do chores, drive, and relax with a cup of coffee.
This can make you feel like a friend to your listener, which is one of the best ways to acquire a “True Fan”.
And you don’t even need to do an interview podcast. You can just start a podcast by yourself, and eventually find a way to incorporate your community of listeners.
The easiest way to start a solo podcast is simple:
- Find a podcast host. I recommend Spreaker, but Podbean is great as well
- Download the Spreaker app on your phone or tablet
- Name your podcast
- Use your existing blog content for podcast episode ideas
- Record a few episodes
- If you like making podcast content, sign up for a paid plan
- Make a habit of podcasting
- Profit 💸
A great example of a podcast that accompanies a blog is Nick Loper’s Side Hustle Show Podcast. Nick publishes his episodes and pairs each one with a blog post that acts as show notes.
This way, he gets website traffic from his podcast, and podcast traffic from his website. It’s a beautiful cycle.
Write a book
Now we’re going to talk about how and why you should write a book.
A book is the ultimate business card for your blog. Writing a book positions you as an authority in your niche.
It also allows you to attract more website traffic from book marketplaces like:
- Amazon
- Barnes & Noble
- Gumroad
And platforms like Draft2Digital and Canva make the book publishing and creation processes so easy nowadays!
If you want to reduce the overwhelm of writing a book and take action, follow J.R Heimbigner’s book-writing guides and challenges.
And listen to the podcast “Self-Publishing with Dale” if you want to learn about the best tools, systems, and resources for authors.
And here’s a pro tip: compile a bunch of blog posts to create a book. I learned about this simple strategy from Jamie Northrup, known as the Minimalist Hustler.
Sell a course
One of the best passive, high-ticket products you can sell as a blogger is a course.
They’re easy to create, and they don’t need to be super long or complicated.
Just think of it like writing a blog post or a book, but with video modules.
However, you can also use written content in your course, which plays into your strengths as a writer and a blogger.
Now let’s talk about creating and marketing your course.
We’ll start by looking at 2 popular “course marketplaces”, Skillshare and Udemy.
Skillshare
Skillshare is an online course membership platform, and they call their courses “classes “.
A Skillshare class only needs to be a minimum of 10 minutes long, which makes it super easy to get started on Skillshare ASAP.
So, put together a quick A-Z Skillshare Class that delivers lots of value in a short amount of time.
Here’s the first Skillshare class I created:
Udemy
Udemy is the most popular course marketplace for premium courses.
Your Udemy course needs to be a minimum of 30 minutes long, and they have relatively high video quality standards.
This is truly one of the best platforms for getting exposure to your blog and courses.
They have hundreds of millions of users, and they are very good at marketing their course creators.
They also have lots of built-in tools to help you validate your course idea and promote your course to your audience.
I could spend another 20 minutes talking about Udemy, but I recommend you just check it out.
Self-hosted options
Outside of course marketplaces, you can create courses using self-hosted course platforms. Some of these are also considered learning management systems or community platforms.
Here are some of the best online course platforms:
- Teachable
- Payhip
- Patreon
- Circle
- Thinkific
- Podia
- Kajabi
- Gumroad
You’ll have to do a little bit of research to decide which platform to use.
I honestly recommend Payhip, because it’s affordable and super easy to figure out how to use it.
Creating a course on WordPress
You can also create and sell courses on WordPress.
Some plugins worth checking out for course creators are:
Write on Social Media
The last side hustle for bloggers is writing on social media.
Platforms like X and Facebook will pay you simply for posting content.
You have to sign up for their revenue-sharing programs for creators, but once you’re in, it’s as easy as making a daily post.
Just write something or post a photo, and you can make money.
It honestly blows my mind that this exists as a side hustle nowadays. So look into it.
5 Side Hustles for Bloggers Recap
Now let’s recap these 5 side hustle ideas for bloggers:
- Write on Medium
- Start a podcast
- Write a book
- Sell a course
- Write on social media
These are fun, additional revenue streams that work well alongside your skills, content, and community as a blogger.