If you spend any time on TikTok, you’ve probably seen people talking about side hustles – ways to make more money without a lot of work. And let’s be honest, who isn’t looking for a side hustle. But let’s talk about TikTok side hustles – are they real, or are they just a waste of time?
Selling Digital Items
One of the most common things that comes across my feed is making cool digital items and then listing them as digital downloads on Etsy. Use Canva to make a neat print, create a mockup of that print in a frame hanging on a wall, and list it for sale! Easy as that!
And yes, you can absolutely do that. But… who is going to buy those prints? I don’t know about you, but if I’m buying simple text-based art (which these usually are) and I have to print it myself, I’m certainly not going to pay much for it. And Etsy takes a fee for everything sold, so how much money are you really going to make?
Now, if you have a niche that you can sell in, you might be able to make some money. A friend designs quilt patterns for herself, and then lists them as downloadable patterns on Etsy. She’s not made a fortune, but she’s made some fun money for herself, and more importantly, she’s selling something she was going to make anyway.
Another friend is a digital artist and occasionally sells printable versions of her art – but she also sells hard copies as well, and she’ll be the first to admit that the hard copies sell better.
Of course, what you’re selling doesn’t have to be art. You can sell templates or calendars or a bunch of other things that can be used digitally. And if it’s something you enjoy doing, sure, you might make a little bit. But it’s not going to be “quit your job” money.
Dropshipping
One popular TikTok side hustle is something that isn’t new – dropshipping. I’ve talked about dropshipping before, but essentially, you curate a storefront with a bunch of different items for sale. But you aren’t ever holding inventory. Instead, you’re the middleman, working with a company who will ship the item to the customer for you. You get paid the difference between what the company charges and what the customer pays. Dropshipping is absolutely a legitimate business method – but it isn’t as easy as it seems, and it’s not free. First off, you have to have a storefront. Most people use Shopify, which costs around $30 a month. Most importantly, you have to get customers to your store! How are you going to get someone to come shop with you, especially if they can get the same products elsewhere – which they can, because that’s how dropshipping works.
Dropshipping can work great if you already have a customer base that you can market to. And of course, it can be great for big TikTok users because they already have a bunch of followers who they can easily market to. But this isn’t something that’s easy to get into, and it often comes with a lot of frustration.
Printable Notebooks
The strangest TikTok side hustle I’ve seen recently utilizes Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, where, contrary to its name, you can self-publish both digital Kindle books and paperbacks. One tip is to create a blank notebook or workbook. Design a cool cover, then fill it with lined pages or possibly a template (maybe a dream journal or a daily to-do list). Publish it to the site and if people like your design, they can purchase your notebook. Easy, right?
But notebooks are cheap. How often are people really going onto Amazon to buy a blank lined notebook or even a workbook from an unknown publisher? I really can’t believe this side hustle makes that much money. But maybe I should try it out for myself and report back!
Read More:
- 5 Reasons to Consider a Side Hustle in the New Year
- 5 Side-Hustles for Car Enthusiasts
- Online Side Hustle Mistakes I Have Made
Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
Leave a Reply