4 Side Hustles to Make Money for the Holidays

The holidays are the time of year when money gets tight. With a couple of weeks off work and plenty of presents to buy, it’s easy to overspend and leave yourself short of cash. Everyone has been there, and there’s nothing worse than worrying about whether you’ll have to cut back to get by.

Thankfully, a simple solution exists – a side hustle. The rise of the internet means that using a side hustle to boost your income has become easier than ever. Combine that with the fact that working from home is now the norm and job vacancies are everywhere, there are thousands of stress-free ways to earn cash. Here are four.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing was a relatively unknown term ten years ago – but in 2021, the industry generated 16% of all online orders. Considering that eCommerce accounts for around one-third of internet sales, with the figure increasing yearly, it’s a powerful sector that offers opportunities to beginners.

As an amateur, you want to avoid falling into obvious traps, such as choosing an unsuitable software provider. To find the best software tools for affiliate marketing, it’s important to consider the features that make the biggest differences, since they can make the journey much smoother. For example, tracking capabilities are just as essential as VPN and SEO features. Don’t forget about design, either!

Rent Your Spare Room

Not everyone is fortunate enough to own a home, let alone own one with multiple rooms. But if you do fall into this category, you shouldn’t sit around counting your lucky stars. Instead, do something about the white elephant that’s costing you money!

A lodger is a savvy way to cover bills, as the extra person in your home will contribute to living costs. Or, if you only fancy hosting visitors irregularly, post your room (or full house) on Airbnb. Airbnb provides flexibility so that you don’t have to feel uncomfortable, and the company offers insurance policies in case problems arise.

Drive a Taxi

Uber is like Airbnb in the sense that it takes a common skill and monetizes it. With 1.2 billion vehicles on the world’s roads, and an additional 800,000 expected by 2035, it’s not jumping the gun to assume you can drive and own a car. It’s the norm in a country where travel is part of regular life.

By joining taxi companies where customers hail cabs remotely, you can leverage your assets to your advantage by ferrying people around for money. The best part is that you’re self-employed and get to decide which fares to accept and what hours you work.

Remote Tutoring

There’s one final skill you have that people are desperate for – the ability to speak English. It may not be the most widely spoken language in the world – that honor goes to Mandarin – yet it’s universally accepted as the planet’s official language. If two people are from different places, English is the compromise.

The thing about tutoring is that you can enroll in a course and obtain a teaching qualification very easily. Once you understand the basics of tutoring, it’s possible to charge students to learn English. And you can do it via Skype or Zoom, so your client base will know no bounds!

The key is to recognize that you have skills that you can sell. When you do that, there’s no stopping your entrepreneurial spirit.