Reddit’s 9 Best Side Hustles Are Awesome

Key Points

• According to a study, 2 out of every 5 Americans, or almost 40%, have a side hustle.
• Reddit is a trusted source for side hustle recommendations, with communities that provide honest and trustworthy opinions.
• Some of the best side hustles recommended by Reddit include flipping thrift store finds, dropshipping, freelance writing, plasma donating, and user testing.

In today’s world, having a side hustle is not only something that is becoming more common, it’s already becoming the norm.

According to a study conducted by Zapier in 2022, 2 out of every 5 Americans, or almost 40%, of the adult population are believed to have a side hustle. The reality is that this percentage is only expected to grow as layoffs continue and costs rise around the country. 

In fact, according to an April 2023 Bankrate survey, over 44% of people believe they will always need a side hustle to make ends meet. Given that, finding the right side hustle becomes an important part of the process as you want to try and maximize earnings without affecting a full-time job or working 24/7. Enter Reddit with its fantastic communities that can help you identify the very best side hustles to consider. 

With this in mind, let’s take a look at the exact side hustles Reddit believes you should start today. 

Why Trust Reddit for Side Hustle Recommendations? 

When it comes to online recommendations, Reddit truly lives up to its self-proclaimed title as the “front page of the internet.” There are dozens of communities, some with tens of thousands of members that can help you locate and get started with some excellent side hustle recommendations. In fact, your first move when you consider getting a side hustle is to go to Reddit and ask for reviews of websites online that might be hiring freelancers for content creation or delivery work. 

Asking questions to this broad community of people from around the country and all walks of life will give you honest and trustworthy opinions to know if a side hustle is worth pursuing. The answers you receive here might save you from a scam or working for a company that sounds too good to be true. 

This is why it’s so important to take a look at the best side hustles Reddit believes are awesome. 

Reddit’s 9 Best Side Hustles 

#1: Flipping Thrift Store Finds

This is a side hustle that has been around since the explosive growth of eBay, but flipping thrift store or garage sale finds is a Reddit side hustle favorite.

There are dozens of threads in r/sidehustle including this one that highlight the strength of Mercari, Poshmark, and OfferUp for reselling items you find. The thread even highlights that there are dedicated Facebook groups with thousands of members who do this for a living having had so much success with this process as a side hustle. 

While income can and will vary based on what you want to spend and how frequently you want to visit thrift stores and garage sales, there is money to be made. Most items won’t turn huge profits but lots of small items together add up, and every once in a while, you’ll come across a rock star item that’s severely undervalued and worth a lot more than you paid. 

As long as you are willing to put in the time to visit multiple thrift stores and garage sales on the regular, you can see success with this side hustle. 

#2: Dropshipping

When it comes to dropshipping as a favorite side hustle, there are two sides to this coin. While it’s definitely one of Reddit’s best side hustles according to this r/sidehustle thread, it’s not easy and it takes time to grow. 

But wait, what exactly is dropshipping? A popular side hustle on Amazon, Shopify, or Etsy, dropshipping is essentially buying a group of products, placing the product on Amazon, Shopify, or Etsy as a storefront, and allowing these stores to handle all of the shipping for you. According to Shopify, dropshipping is an easy way to “start a business without having to lease warehouse space, juggle supply chains, or manage inventory.” 

There is no doubt that dropshipping requires a lot of time and patience and, potentially, a good chunk of marketing, but there is money to be made here as a side hustle. If you can devote the time to making dropshipping work, there are plenty of success stories. 

#3: Freelance Writing

Arguably the most common side hustle before side hustles were really a thing, freelance writing has long been a great way to make money on the side. According to this thread in r/freelancewriters, freelance writing can be so successful that you can build your way up from writing as a side hustle and turn it into a full-time job. 

Of course, finding the right freelance writing gig can take time, but sites like ProBlogger and Upwork can help you locate plenty of opportunities in this space. You’ll have to do some digging to find the ones that pay well and will be around for the long-term, but if you find one, Redditors in r/freelancerwriters know it’s a side hustle they are likely to stick with for the long haul. 

Better yet, if you can string together a lot of different freelance writing roles, you might even start to replace some of your full-time income, which is where many Redditors indicate it’s possible to transition to full-time writing. 

#4: Plasma Donating

It’s unlikely that anyone would call donating plasma awesome as far as side hustles go, but it’s definitely lucrative and is a Reddit favorite. According to this thread in r/plassing, the subreddit to discuss plasma donations, it’s not impossible to make $800 a month for 7-8 monthly donations. There are caveats to this, of course, as different places play different dollar amounts depending on where you are in the United States. 

The second caveat here is that donating plasma requires a number of different health screenings and can potentially leave a small scar where the plasma is regularly taken.

Even with all of the potential risks, Reddit absolutely swears by plasma donation as a quick and easy way to make some additional cash each month. In the r/plassing subreddit, Redditors also share tips on how to ease the donation process like drinking lots of liquids before going but skipping coffee 24 hours prior to your donation. 

#5: User Testing

Something of a unique side hustle that isn’t likely to be top of mind, user testing is a great way to earn some side income according to Reddit. Redditors in this thread on r/sidehustle indicate that you can earn anywhere between $10 for a 10-minute interview and $60 for a 60-minute interview. A couple of Redditors praising this side hustle note that with 2-3 interviews per week, they are able to pull in more than $500 on the side and that is just with minimal effort. 

So, what is user testing? Well, if you go to usertesting.com and check out the site, it’s essentially an opportunity for companies large and small to ask questions about their product and services. It’s essentially a focus group, but something you can do on your own. 

The best part about this website is that you can see exactly how much you will earn depending on each test you select, and that money is deposited right into your PayPal account approximately 7 days after completion. The more tests you take and the more positive reviews you earn, the more your earning potential grows. 

#6: Home Garden Plant Sales

This is another unusual side hustle that you likely wouldn’t expect, but Redditors rave about the opportunities and income potential that can be found by selling plants from a home garden. Everything from blackberries, raspberries, comfrey, flowers, herbs, sunchokes, and more are just a few of the types of plants Redditors have seen do well. 

Better yet, the start-up cost here can be really small as seeds from your existing plants will continue to spread thereby growing more plants, which eliminates the need to go out and buy more seeds. 

Redditors in this r/sidehustle thread indicate they are clearing over $4,000 a month from this side hustle working only a few hours a day, if not less. Another Redditor indicated they made over $35,000 this year already (as of September 2023) from this same side hustle, all while working a full-time job. One Redditor pointed out they got started with this side hustle after seeing their local library had a seed bank and used it to start their own garden. 

#7: Gigpro

Another Reddit favorite albeit one that hasn’t gotten as much attention as it should is using a service like Gigpro. According to this Reddit thread in the r/DaveRamsey subreddit, using this service allows you to not only make your own schedule, but you can work as little as you like.

One Redditor found a bellman job at a local resort without any experience and was making $25 per hour plus tips working only on weekends. Gigpro even indicates their users are making an average hourly wage of around $17 and up. 

With Gigpro, you can find a local role in the hospitality space, which means opportunities are abundant for restaurant hosts and hostesses, dishwashers, servers, bussers, prep cooks, etc. and you can just pick up extra shifts as often as you need. You can also use this site to help find a full-time role or just pick up something on a random weekend when you want to make a little extra spending money for a vacation. 

#8: Dog Walking

It’s unlikely that dog walking is likely to surprise anyone as a favorite Reddit side hustle as there are dozens and dozens of threads across various subreddits. This thread in r/sidehustle offers a number of different earning opportunities depending on how many dogs you want to walk at once and how frequently. Some side hustles in this space will allow you to bring in $25-$30 an hour, $25 for a drop-in visit at a home, or reaching upwards of $80-$100 for an overnight check-in. 

If you don’t have an immediate opportunity within your circle of neighbors or friends, websites like Rover have grown increasingly popular over the last few years. While Rover does take a piece of your income as part of its services, it also offers you a variety of guarantees with different roles as well as opening the door to far more service options than you would likely find on your own. 

#9: TaskRabbit

If you are someone who has a special set of skills or just enjoys a variety of different projects, TaskRabbit is a great website to try and earn some side income. As a side hustle, Redditors often recommend signing up for TaskRabbit as a way to earn a few hundred dollars extra per week. This thread in r/sidehustle shows just how popular TaskRabbit is for the Redditor who asked to earn around $200 extra a week. 

While it appears that TaskRabbit has become increasingly reliant on handyman-style services as a popular option, there are still a variety of categories you could look at and sign up to start with. Everything from helping someone pack for a move, lifting heavy furniture, and minor plumbing repairs to helping with mounting a television are just a few of the different options TaskRabbit indicates might be popular in your area. 

Wrapping Up

For better or worse, the side hustle is here to stay as 9-to-5 job salaries are simply not keeping up with the ever-increasing cost of living.

While having to do a side hustle is never ideal, many people do find joy in taking advantage of the huge number of opportunities available to try and earn a little extra money on the side.

There are even plenty of stories of people taking their side hustle and converting it into full-time income, which very well could happen to you.

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