I have been asked how did I side hustles while having a full-time job.
I think it is just enjoying the grinding.
Given limited time, what is the most profitable side hustle? From my experience of around 7 side hustles, dropshipping is the most profitable side hustle. You can scale the revenue of dropshipping with higher-priced items easily without any inventory risks. The problems are it is time-consuming with customer service and it is very low margin.
I will share my experiences with other types of side hustling so you can decide for yourself.
Initially, I thought I will make an email course over 7 or 30 days to explain it step-by-step in an easy and actionable way. The problem, I just don't have time to craft a great email sequence.
Therefore, I will write and update this blog with my way and experience so you can choose whether you want to side hustle a specific way or not.
Survey
I am sure everyone knows you can make money doing surveys. I know a few people smart at work doing that with a full-time job. I hate the survey for 2 main reasons - limited opportunities and impossible to hit the minimum payment threshold.
For a start, I did make money from surveys before. I tried many shady looking survey sites before trying YouGov SG, which is more reputable. I am surprised I had withdrawn $25 to PayPal when I checked my inactive account recently. Below are a snapshot and my referral link.
It is impossible to make lots of money with it. You are waiting for surveys before you can hit the threshold. In many shady websites, you end up getting a sign-up bonus but never enough surveys to hit the threshold.
I don't like that so, not for me, especially in the long term. I prefer to do something with more scale and value my time more.
https://sg.yougov.com/en-sg/refer/QQYZm4iED30hzZrUo7EbbA/
Dropshipping in Classified Sites
I cannot recall exactly but I just tried this new app in Singapore called Carousell or Carou-hell which is just a classified site like US Craiglist.
I listed items I owned that I wanted to clear. My first item was a Herschel bag worth $200 and someone just bought it and it intrigued me in this whole thing.
I listed more home stuff and the number of interests invited me to try selling more there.
I decided to list items I don't own (aka drop shipping without knowing it). I listed Fujifilm Instax films (on the impression people will buy again from me if I do well) at cost price.
When people are interested, I will buy with all the coupon discounts, referral discount, credit card rebates, and sell to the person. You can read more about coupon and deals at https://www.hairqueenie.com/pages/shopping-coupons-and-deals
The problem is selling at classified sites isn't scalable. You have lots of customer service upfront with each sale, not to mention the occasion low ballers.
I stopped doing that as I tried and moved to Shopee and Lazada.
Selling Goods at Flea Market / Garage Sales
I wish to mention about local flea markets. In Singapore, you can ask the local community center for cheap rentals, like $10 a day at a specific public area. I always wonder whether it is profitable and it kinda hit the same problem as Carousell.
A lot of questions before each sale. There are also upfront risks of paying rent and you have to wait in the hot scorching sun. I am sure there are more successful people out there working at it, but the one renting out the places probably win outright.
Dropshipping at Online Marketplaces
While the US has Amazon and Walmart, there is a Shopee, Lazada, and Qoo10 in Singapore.
It is totally free to open an account for all except Qoo10 (Quube seem free). There isn't a Professional version like Amazon that charge monthly fees for extra features.
I tried all and gave up on the Qoo10 interface. I still had $100 inside and probably should do something with that. Maybe I should look at their Quube account too.
Nevertheless, I have a better experience with Lazada and Shopee.
Lazada Sales Support has been more hands-on with their Philippines support.
Shopee Sales Support has been really passive for me which I don't mind since I have few issues with it except for the occasional policy change like the need to deliver using integrated channels. The FaceBook support was good enough so I didn't mind.
I have doing it for over 2 years and still doing. It doesn't grow much as competitors will come or product demand will drop too. It requires updating the products and also handling customer services which I didn't like.
Ecommerce Website + Social Media Ads
Watching online Youtubes of other people led me to try this out. I bought an Alidropship site on drones. It was interesting as I got a sale from someone in Romania I think and I use Aliexpress and it works out. However, there were no sales in 1 year and also some scammy transactions.
I tried this for a while using the income from drop shipping at online marketplaces before stopping.
It was interesting but I get very little sales as I am not good at it. I lost money for Facebook and Instagram Ads. I am also not into graphic design.
I also tried Shopify and also tried buying expired domains. That did not work out and I did sell a site back in GoDaddy but didn't realize there is a minimum threshold before you can withdraw and not worth renewing the annual auction fee to find another site to sell. I kept some of the websites and converted them into content websites after watching Income School.
Content Website / Blogger + Adsense / Affiliate Links
My current favorite hobby now though not profitable too. I liked it because I like giving helpful content, I can do it at the comfort of my home and it is not time-critical like E-Commerce. That is very helpful when I got many things happening in life too as a child and parent to take care of.
Print On Demand (POD) / Merch
While working on content sites, I tried Merch again. It was refreshing as I found a good app to use and had some sales. 1 account got banned in RedBubble for no reason and hopefully will get it back. Merch also had around 5 sales in Amazon but still in Tier 10. Will be patient with this.
Long story short, there is no passive income. Things I Never Tried
- Amazon FBA
- Virtual Assistance
- Freelance Writing (I am not good but the bulk of my cost are hiring freelance writing so far)