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As long as you want more cash in your life, you should figure out the best route to get an extra trickle coming into your bank account each month. I feel like everyone should have a little something on the side, because there’s a method that suits everyone’s skills and knowledge level. The two barriers that many use as reasons for not attempting to generate a side income are because:
- They haven’t got enough time
- They haven’t got enough money
As a parent who worked full time for my first child’s first year in the world, I can fully appreciate when it feels like you’ve got no extra time to fit anything in. People can find themselves in lots of other situations where personal commitments make it difficult to get started on a money-making project. However, I’m sure most people could also cut a lot of distractions out of their lives for the chance to boost their personal budgets.
As for money, it’s true that you’re going to make worthwhile money a lot sooner if you spend money to begin with. How much do you need to start with depends on your expectations and goals, but I’d say a £100 investment can get you to £1,000 within a year (and most a lot more than that with much faster results).
If you know you have a spare £100 to play around with, let me introduce you to 15 ways you can turn that into £1,000 over the course of a few months. Working with a smaller budget? I’ve already gone through some ways to turn £10 into £100.
1. Domaining
Most domains are going to cost you under £10. The value of a good hand-registered one these days can be anything from double your investment to a couple of thousand pounds. Start small, focus on £50 sales (especially for .co.uks) to work out the process of thinking of, selling and transferring domains that sell, before you chase the big money flips.
Useful sites: NameCheap, Flippa, Sedo, Domain Lore
2. Start an e-Book Empire
Book-reading challenges seem to be inescapable these days. Everyone’s bragging about how many they’ve gone through over the course of a year, and how much better they feel for doing it. Be a part of that trend and contribute towards it. Self-help, niche interest, novels, children’s books are all selling, and you can take a slice of the pie. Use the money towards book artwork, an editor (off Fiver) and a website that focuses on entertaining its email list.
Useful sites: Kindle, Lyrical Host
3. Print-on-Demand
Print-on-demand is where you create designs for specific products (mugs, t-shirts, towels, cards, bags or whatever else) market those products, wait for sales, and then have those items printed up and shipped out to the customer. You don’t hold any stock or spend any money on stock until you make a sale. Use that budget towards designs, a website and potentially a little advertising.
Useful sites: Inkthreadable, Merch by Amazon, Kite, Shopify
4. Blogging
I could talk forever and ever about why you’re mad to avoid blogging. It’s something that everyone can do and really doesn’t require much in the way of technical skill. Get yourself a domain, hosting, and get creating. Build up your authority in whatever niche you fancy (you – like actually only ever talking about yourself – qualifies as a niche too) and sponsored posts will eventually come your way. Further monetisation methods will follow along with it.
Useful sites: Lyrical Host
5. Affiliate website
Staying on the website lane, let’s focus on affiliate-focused websites. Focus on really making sure that you have a solid, affiliate offer that you want to push, and make content that goes far beyond what everyone else is doing (or is so unique that people gravitate to that over the competitors’). Like blogs, affiliate websites can be done on the cheap. A domain, hosting, a good theme together will still be way under your budget.
Useful sites: Lyrical Host
6. Niche Instagram Account
Post. Post. Post. Curate content in whatever niche (crediting your every source) will help you to build up a following. You may even want to pay someone to do it for you. Once you get once decent, consistent engagement, your page may be attractive enough to advertisers. Pages with as little as 10,000 followers are charging for £50 posts as I write this.
Useful sites: Tribe
7. eBay Reselling
There is so much you can do with £100 worth of goods. Absolutely loads. Whatever you know most about (whether it be clothing, music, toys or something else) and buy things that you know you can make a profit on. Use eBay search and filter options to see what similar things have sold for in the past, so you’re not completely in the dark.
Useful sites: eBay
8. Shopify Dropshipping
It was a game changer when Oberlo became a free Shopify app. Since then it’s given people the chance to make a killing by selling a wide variety of dropshipped products. As the suppliers only send items out when a sale is made, the only investment you need to make is the Shopify hosting subscription and any costs associated with getting people to the site. Reinvest all revenue until you see some decent profit.
9. Craft Business
For those that know that they have it in them to make good quality craft items, I would always say that it’s worth putting those skills to create handmade items, and selling them on Etsy and other marketplaces. Buy your supplies for the low on eBay and get busy. With some good keywords and imagery, sales will come.
10. YouTube
I can’t stress enough how easily you can go from 0 views to thousands on YouTube. Invest in whatever low-cost tools you need to make a video, or series of them, with focused niche appeal. I wouldn’t rely on YouTube ad revenue to take you to £1,000, but an informative video with an affiliate offer in the description could easily do the trick.
Useful sites: YouTube
11. Short Audiobook
Kindle e-books were absolutely on fire in 2013 and 2014. They were the in-thing, with people around the world throwing out their bookcases to fill tablets full of all the literature they would ever need. There’s still money in it. But many find it a lot more efficient to not actually read at all, and listen to audiobook versions instead. Hire a voice actor to turn your short book into audio format and market the hell out of it.
Useful websites: ACX
12. Freelance Arbitrage
The presentation of each of the platforms means that customers on UpWork and Fiverr think that they’re going to have very different experiences when they purchase a gig. As a result, some people undercharge on Fiverr when they would make a lot more on UpWork. Find the good talent on Fiverr and sell their skills with your own listing on UpWork. Once you’ve built up a reputation, the orders will keep coming. Just make sure you’ve got a back-up if your first one can’t keep up with the demand.
Useful sites: UpWork, People Per Hour, Fiverr
13. Flip a Starter Site
Flippa is filled to the brim with potential business ideas. People come up with great things and just haven’t got the drive or time to see them through. Websites are easy ones for newbies to improve upon and turn into an even more attractive asset, which can then be sold on for an even greater price. You’ll need a few flips to get to a grand, but it’s worth your time.
Useful sites: Flippa
14. Payment-Required Competitions
Comping is one of those things that has the potential to take you to the riches if you really commit to it. As it’s so easy to enter most competitions, most are flooded with entries, minimising your chance to win. That doesn’t tend to be the case when you need to purchase something for a chance to win. Pick wisely. Choose competitions with prizes that you can easily resell. And also – bear in mind that this would probably take you the longest to get to £1,000 of those listed, but always has the chance to surprise you and get you there much quicker.
Useful sites: SuperLucky Me, Loquax
15. Matched Betting
Matched betting is not gambling. I have to say it over and over again because I understand that it’s going to be the one thing that puts most people off trying it. It’s a risk-free, tax-free way method of taking advantage of free bets and offers so you will not lose money. Heads&Heads takes you step-by-step through the process of how to profit on every bet you make, and will earn you hundreds per month, taking you to thousands in no time.
Useful website: Heads&Heads
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