Side Hustles I’ve Tried, That Actually Work

(and no, mlm’s are not a side hustle)

Like most people, I was a broke college student. I remember I had $8 in my account once and that was the moment I swore I was going to try every side hustle that didn’t seem sketchy. I tried selling my old clothes, renting my clothes, online surveys, affiliate marketing and beauty product testing. Slowly but surely, I began seeing real results in some of the side hustles and in the others, I decided were not worth my time. So here’s everything that worked and what I would actually recommend if you’re looking for some extra income:

Selling my old clothes on Poshmark

I had been selling my clothes casually on Postmark since I was 16, in order to save up for a prom dress, but in college I decided to take it seriously. I sold everything from shirts, jeans, heels and even my old backpacks. It took about a total of 10 minutes to take pictures of the product, to post, and to add a description and caption. I liked selling on Poshmark because all you have to do is sell the item, and all of the communication and shipping is done through the app. The best part is that when you sell something the buyer covers the cost of shipping and Poshmark only takes a 20% commission for products over $15. I ended up making over $1000 just by selling my gently used clothing on the app, and for a side hustle I’m counting that as a huge win. I 100% recommend this as a side hustle.

Renting my Clothes on by rotation

I actually decided to try this out after getting married because I had so many bridal outfits that I didn’t have the heart to get rid of, but they were taking up valuable real estate in my closet. So I decided I might as well see if I could make any money off of them, plus I had experience renting clothes for events myself so how different was it for me to be the lender this time? I started in May 2024 and I’ve already had close to $500 in rental requests just casually renting out some dresses every month. Pros: You make money and you get to control the pricing, if something happens to your item you can charge them as you see fit for the damage. Cons: Shipping is not always on time and even though it’s out of your control, the person rents it for a select date and you have to make sure it gets there by that date. Would I recommend it? Absolutely but only if you’re okay with loaning out your clothes and the possibility of them getting lost or damaged.

Affiliate Marketing

This works amazingly well if you have followers and know how to work Pinterest, if you don’t have millions of followers its still a good way to generate some income for the things that you post or recommend to your friends and family. Platforms like LTK, Amazon Storefront, and Shop My are some of the best ones I’ve tried. They all have the same idea, you link an item, post it with the link to your social media or text your family the link, and if they purchase the item from your link then you get commission from the item. Commission varies on each platform and item linked but the cool part is that you can still make commission even without a million followers.

Surveys and apps

In college I was a huge fan of this, particularly the App’s Google Survey Rewards and Evidation. Each app has the same concept of asking you tiny surveys in exchange for money or points and once you reach a certain amount you can cash it out. For Google Survey Rewards it would ask you questions based on things you googled and they were like 2-3 questions per survey. For each survey they would give you anywhere from .10-.60 cents and when you reached $2 you could cash out. Let me tell you, in college I googled a thousand things a day so I was racking up in surveys, I ended up making over $150 with the little surveys and forms as a college student, that paid for all of my iced coffees. Evidation worked a little differently, it would give you points for exercising, walking and surveys. In college I walked so much going from class to class so I knew I had to take advantage of this opportunity, after 10,000 points you could cash out for $10. I would totally recommend these apps for any college student or someone who googles everything like me.

That concludes all of the side hustles I’ve tried (and liked) this far, of course if I try any new ones I will gladly write a new post and update you on it. One thing that you must always remember is that a side hustle makes you money. Never ever does it cost you money, that’s a scam (or a mlm). Now go and try any of these for yourself, and if you find something that makes you millions….call me.

If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed and/or learned something from this post! Comments are always welcome! What would you like to see more of? Any questions? What did you love, hate, feel inspired by? Let me Know (: