Lately, stretching a dollar has become harder and harder.
With the overall rise in costs for pretty much everything in the last year, many of us are looking for extra streams of income.
According to a recent study, the average American income is about $4,585 per month. But we imagine that most people would love to double that income and experience financial freedom.
Maybe you resonate with this. Or, maybe you’re just tired of your 9-5 and you’re looking for alternative ways to start your own business, be financially stable, and stop relying on a company for your paycheck.
Whatever your reason may be for seeking out alternative sources of income, we’ve done extensive research to find several side hustles that have the potential to bring in $10,000 per month.
Is it easy to make this kind of money?
Of course not. You have to pick the right side hustle and put in tons of time and effort.
But it is possible and many have done it.
How to Make $10k Per Month: 6 Ideas That Have Actually Worked
1. Digital Marketing
Starting a digital marketing agency can be very profitable. In today’s world, it’s crucial to have an online presence.
Google, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and even YouTube ads (just to name a few) are some of the biggest ways for businesses to get connected with the right customers.
And if you’re the one who can make it happen? You’ll be paid handsomely.
Most business owners do not have the time to build a digital footprint and create a bigger customer base through digital marketing, so they hire marketing firms to accomplish all of this.
Digital marketing can be a very lucrative business, but there’s a lot of upfront education that goes into understanding how to advertise well. You have to be able to make more money than you spend. And to do that, you have to understand what moves a person to take action.
This skill set also includes:
- Understanding analytics behind the ads—reading ad reports, calculating ROI, and providing plans for getting results
- Knowing how to increase engagement, overall follower growth, and sales percentages
- Learning how to talk to each company’s target audience, and what makes that person tick
- Creating images or videos—or paying someone else to do it
- Understanding the basics of copywriting
- Staying up to date with all of the current trends and capabilities within each social media platform
Earning Potential :
The earning potential can be upwards of $30,000 per month, but this also depends on the size of your organization. If you are a one-man show, your capacity for clients is limited. As you build your marketing firm to a sizable amount of employees, you can take on more business, but you are also taking on more expenses—payroll, taxes, benefits, etc.
These costs could eventually outweigh the monthly paycheck you’re taking home.
For instance, our own Aaron Martinez was making over $100,000 a month in his digital marketing business, but after overhead costs…
…He was only bringing home $3,000-$4,000 a month.
But after he started with remote closing, he started making $30k+ per month without all the expenses and stress of running a marketing agency.
And he details his story in this video.
2. If you’re crafty, get creative!
There are plenty of ways for the ultra-creative to make $10,000 a month.
Etsy has created an opportunity for creatives to make an amazing monthly income by selling their own handcrafted items. There is no Etsy warehouse, items are shipped directly by the seller.
Whether you are a digital designer creating website templates or reselling items like refurbished unique furniture, Etsy may be the place for you!
The fee to sell on Etsy (outside of materials needed to create your designs) is FREE. Unless you decide to upgrade to $10 per month. There is an additional $0.20 listing fee and, of course, the processing fee (which is included for any business).
Etsy also pays for offsite ads, so if one of your products sold is tracked back to an ad, Etsy charges an additional 15%—but that only occurs if the sale originated from an ad.
Etsy’s platform has allowed artists of all kinds to generate an income through their creativity.
Earning Potential:
The average Etsy Seller makes between $43,000 and $46,000 annually. And then there are those sellers like Alicia Schaffer who have built an Etsy business that generates up to $70,000 per month!
Finding a niche in this creative marketplace and doing it well is the key to being successful on a platform like Etsy.
To master the upper side of Etsy’s earning potential, you’ll need to find a market that’s extremely hungry for a product you can provide.
3. Like To Know It Affiliate Program
Affiliate marketing can be a very lucrative business—especially if you already have an existing following on social media or have the background knowledge to quickly grow a following and/or direct traffic to your affiliate products through ads.
Many fashion influencers have taken advantage of shopltk.com (Like to Know It). This app allows influencers to post their personal link to their social bios and allows shoppers to shop the full ‘look’ no matter where the item originated.
Influencers are able to cash in using any and all affiliate links included in their Like to Know It account. For all of those with a ‘passion for fashion,’ this is a great way to work from home and generate a great monthly income.
Unlike Etsy, Like to Know It and many other affiliate programs do require you to apply to join their platform. The main credentials they are looking for to be considered for this program is your social following, the content posted and how often you are posting.
Earning Potential:
The app Like to Know It has stated that the income generated for influencers using this app ranges depending on how often they work the model and how much influence they have over their social following, but some of the top earning influencers are making more than $20,000 per month.
There is a detailed list of Instagram obligations and requirements that must be fulfilled to be an active influencer.
But, overall, the app is completely free for the influencer and the social media follower to use. The app makes its money from the companies that decide to partner with Like To Know It in order to attract influencers to promote their products and overall brand.
4. Become an Amazon Affiliate
One of the top affiliate programs to date is, of course, Amazon.
A well-known and trusted brand by today’s influencers. While almost every major company has affiliate marketing options, including Walmart, Target, Nordstrom, etc.
Amazon takes the cake by allowing affiliates of ALL kinds to promote products they are personally interested in and knowledgeable about.
With Amazon, their affiliate program has two different programs:
#1 – Amazon Influencer Program
The Amazon influencer program is similar to LTK. It has an Amazon influencer program specifically built for those with a large following on social media, but qualifications are a must—and Amazon has an approval process in place. To be considered, you need to have a social media presence that has been going on for a while and proven engagement metrics.
This program lets influencers build their own storefronts with a custom Amazon URL. You can then make content, share it with your followers, and recommend products to them.
Earning Potential:
The amount earned depends on both the quantity sold and the category of products sold. For example, Amazon games, on the higher end, have a fixed commission of 20%, luxury beauty items are fixed at a 10% commission—but items such as televisions, physical video games, groceries, and personal items bring in only 1-2% commission.
2. Amazon Associates:
The Amazon Associate program is similar to the Amazon Influencer program but on a much larger scale. In fact, the Amazon Associates program is one of the largest associate programs in the world—helping bloggers and other content and review creators monetize their online traffic.
This program is built on easy-to-use links that can direct their traffic straight to the products they recommend, creating a strictly commission-based income. Earnings can be anywhere up to 10% depending on the item.
This associate program also has a required qualifying process where prospective affiliates are required to provide their website for review in order to participate.
Earning Potential:
Similar to the Amazon influencer program, there is no initial fee or setup cost associated with Amazon to get started. And there is no limit to the earning potential, making Amazon a great choice for those looking to make $10,000 a month or more.
The average income for an Amazon Associate Affiliate is $59,111 and the top 1% of Amazon earners are making between $111,500 and $121,000 per year, which equates to an average of $9,500 per month.
5. Online Courses
Do you have a special skill set? Something you should be teaching the world—or at least a specific niche in the market?
Use programs like Teachable or Kajabi to build your online school using easy, step-by-step processes to create chapters, videos, modules, quizzes, and tests that can help your students.
Programs like Teachable and Kajabi allow you to white-label your school and use advertising and email marketing to build your database and the number of students in attendance.
The Teachable platform has different options available, from free to ‘pro’ to ‘business plan’, and can cost anywhere from $0 to $375 per month depending on the amount of traffic and the amount of marketing features you will need to have a successful business.
You can always start out with a free plan and build up as your business grows.
Similarly, Kajabi allows users to create and market their online education platform. The pricing for this platform ranges from $149 per month to $399 per month.
Being successful with programs like Teachable or Kajabi is no small feat! This kind of success takes a ton of work on the front end as far as setting up your course for success, and then a ton of additional work promoting your course.
Earning Potential:
As with most things, hard work does pay off, and online courses are no exception.
A recent statista report is forecasting that the global e-learning marketplace will be worth close to $400 billion. It’s no wonder that so many are jumping on the online course train.
With some top online course creators bringing in $10 million annually, the industry is not going away anytime soon.
The Best Way Make $10k Fast Like a Boss (While Eliminating ‘Boss Responsibilities’)
All of the above options have a track record of success, and hard-working entrepreneurs have consistently made $10k +.
BUT.
By far the best way to make this kind of money with the least amount of risk? Remote Closing.
A Remote Closer is a salesperson who is hired to help “close” deals for clients—without you having to travel outside of your home.
Remote Closing allows a ‘closer’ to determine how much they want to put into their job. The more calls you take, obviously the more your closing rate increases and ultimately your paycheck.
So, if you decide to go the Remote Closing route, here are the benefits:
- Flexible schedule
- Financial freedom
- Unlimited income opportunity
- Zero headaches as the business owner
Sounds too good to be true, right?
If this were an MLM or a pyramid scheme, we would agree. This is NOT a get-rich-quick scheme.
Remote Closing takes a lot of patience, hard work, and consistency. Like in any sales job, you will be told ‘no’ a lot.
Growing thick skin and tenacity as a salesperson is a must. But, there’s also a level of training needed.
Which Path Will You Choose?
All of these methods can potentially work to help you make $10k per month.
But regardless of which route you go, you’ll need to do your research and hustle.
People don’t make $10k per month overnight. It takes time and hard work.
But it is possible.
