31 Lucrative Social Media Side Hustles to Earn Money Online

Social media has become an integral part of our lives. From staying connected with friends and family to getting news and entertainment, billions of people are now active on various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter and more.

But beyond just networking and sharing, social media has also opened up a whole new world of opportunities to earn money online. Whether you want to monetize your existing audience or start building one from scratch, social media offers multiple pathways to make money if you know how to leverage these platforms strategically.

In this comprehensive guide, we will explore 31 of the best social media side hustles and online business ideas that you can realistically start today to earn income:

1. Become an Influencer

Being an influencer on major platforms like Instagram, YouTube or TikTok is one of the most lucrative ways to monetize your social media presence. You can earn money by:

• Promoting brands as an affiliate
• Paid partnerships and sponsorships
• Creating and selling merch
• Memberships and exclusive content
• Launching your own physical or digital products

The key is building a niche audience who engages with your content regularly. The larger your audience size and engagement, the more brands will pay to get access to them.

2. Launch an Online Store

Social platforms like Facebook and Instagram make it extremely easy to set up online stores. You can sell both physical as well as digital products this way.

Some best selling product ideas include handmade items, print-on-demand products, digital downloads, merchandise with viral meme/pop culture themes and more.

The key advantage is that you can market to your existing followers and target very specific demographics based on their interests and profiles.

3. Become a Freelance Social Media Manager

Every business needs social media help. As a freelance social media manager, you can offer services like:

• Content creation
• Community management
• Paid advertising
• Analytics and reporting

It’s easy to get started by reaching out to local businesses in your city. Over time you can transition to fully remote work with clients from around the world.

4. Start Dropshipping

Dropshipping allows you to sell trending products online without holding any inventory. You find suppliers, build a storefront and drive traffic through platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

When you receive an order, you pass it onto your supplier who then ships the product directly from their warehouse. The profit margin comes from pricing the products a bit above the wholesale rate.

5. Sell Online Courses

Online courses are one of the most scalable digital products you can create to earn passive social media income. Pick a niche you are skilled or knowledgeable in, create value-driven course material, and sell access on your website or platforms like Teachable and Podia.

You can use social media to find potential customers, engage with them and eventually convert them into paying students.

6. Offer Social Media Consulting

Small business owners often need help understanding social media and developing effective marketing strategies. As a consultant, you can offer services like:

• Auditing their current social media presence
• Creating content calendars and posting schedules
• Optimizing profiles and improving engagement
• Setting up and managing ads campaigns
• Tracking performance and analytics

Most of this work can be delivered completely remotely while commanding $50-$150 per hour.

7. Start a Podcast

Podcasting continues to grow rapidly year over year. It provides an extremely scalable option to build a highly targeted audience around your niche. You can eventually monetize listeners through:

• Sponsorships
• Affiliate marketing
• Digital products
• Donations and memberships.

The key is consistency. Release episodes regularly so listenership and revenue opportunities continue to grow.

8. Launch a Blog/Website

Blogging remains one of the most tried and tested ways to establish yourself as an authority online. You can focus on text content for SEO or create video blogs optimized for platforms like YouTube.

Once your blog has substantial traffic coming in through search or social media, you can monetize through:

• Affiliate programs
• Display advertising
• Sponsored posts
• Digital products
• Membership subscriptions.

9. Provide Freelance Services

The internet has opened up countless new opportunities for freelancers offering specialized professional services. With some of the most popular options being:

Programming & Tech – website development, app building, coding, data entry etc.

Writing – blogging, copywriting, editing, proofreading, localization etc.

Design – graphic design, illustrations, branding, print materials, merch etc.

Video – editing, post-production, animation, FX etc.

You can promote your freelance services across relevant social media groups and subreddits. Over time building an online portfolio and leveraging referrals often leads to more stable long term contracts.

10. Teach Language Lessons Online

Platforms like Verbling, Lingoda and iTalki make it extremely convenient to offer online language tutoring services from the comfort of your home.

Most platforms handle student acquisition, scheduling and payments so you can focus solely on lesson delivery through their built-in video chat tools.

If you’re bilingual, this presents an excellent side hustle opportunity with hourly earning potential of $15-$60 per hour depending on the languages you teach.

11. Launch an Online Coaching Business

The global coaching industry is estimated to be worth over $15 billion. As an online coach, your job is to help clients achieve professional or personal goals through accountability, motivation and focused 1-on-1 or group training.

Some top niches include:

• Health, fitness and nutrition coaching
• Business and career coaching
• Life coaching and self improvement
• Dating and relationship advice

Most coaching today happens virtually through video chat platforms. You promote your services directly to potential clients through social media channels.

12. Start Recruiting for Companies

Staffing and recruitment remains a high demand industry. With the rise of remote work over the past couple of years, a new wave HR technology companies have raised huge funding as well to build the future infrastructure of global employment.

Many companies are willing to pay lucrative commissions for sales driven recruiters who can source qualified talent directly or through their networks. This presents an excellent opportunity to build a remote recruiter side hustle.

13. Become a Virtual Assistant

Small business owners and executives often require help with everyday admin tasks to grow their ventures while maintaining work-life balance.

As a Virtual Assistant (VA) you can offer services like:

• Calendar management
• Email handling
• Document & presentation creation
• Research, data entry and analysis
• Scheduling meetings and appointments
• Travel arrangements

To get started, create profiles on sites like Fiverr, Upwork and Freelancer to apply for VA gigs with global clients.

14. Start Reselling Products

Reselling involves buying existing products at wholesale rates from manufacturers or suppliers and selling at a marked up price either locally or online. Social platforms like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist make it easier than ever to find lucrative resale deals.

Some of the most popular reselling side hustles today involve sneakers, electronics, books, LEGO sets, vintage clothing pieces and trading cards among niche collectors items.

15. Rent Out Your Space

If you have an unused garage, parking space or even just an extra couch/bed, you can easily rent it out for side income. Sites like Airbnb, VRBO and Couchsurfing provide the platform while you retain complete control over pricing and availability calendars.

Many digital nomads leverage this model to offset their own rent and travel costs while making new friends in the process!

16. Do Paid Surveys Online

One of the easiest ways to make some extra money online is by filling out paid surveys during your free time. Sites like Survey Junkie, Toluna Influencers and Pinecone Research connect you with researchers willing to pay for your opinion on various products and services.

While each survey may only pay $1-$5, it adds up reasonably over time into consistent pocket money to cash out via PayPal or gift cards. The flexibility and Micro earnings make this an excellent starter side hustle.

17. Rent Out Your Car

Peer to peer car sharing platforms like Turo, GetAround and HyreCar connect vehicle owners with local residents or visitors looking to rent cars. You earn income every time your car gets booked while retaining the flexibility to block rental days for personal use.

Standard insurance coverage also applies so your vehicle remains fully protected. For extra income, this model allows you to leverage an underutilized asset without needing to purchase additional inventory.

18. Invest in Dividend Stocks

While not directly social media focused, building an online portfolio of dividend paying stocks presents a mostly passive way to generate consistent investment income. As a shareholder, public companies pay you a percentage of profits on a monthly or quarterly basis.

You can get started investing in dividend stocks with apps like Robinhood or Webull requiring zero account minimums. Reinvest initial earnings over time to benefit from compound growth.

19. Buy and Flip Domain Names

Good domain names are always in demand by both individuals and businesses looking to establish an online presence. Domain flippers purchase catchy, ultra short or premium domain names at wholesale prices during expired auctions then resell at a markup directly to buyers or through popular reseller platforms.

With some research and luck, a $10 domain can easily fetch $1000+ from the right buyer creating fantastic ROIs.

20. Become a Social Media Moderator

All major social platforms require huge teams of human moderators to monitor content and commentary posted for guideline violations. As a contractor, your job is to review flagged posts and determine what action if any to take while escalating more serious infractions.

It’s an anonymous, behind the scenes role but crucial to ensuring platforms remain safe for users while avoiding liability issues around illegal/dangerous/explicit content proliferation.

21. Start Food/Recipe Blogging

Food blogging remains a lucrative and evergreen niche. You can focus on developing recipes, restaurant reviews, food related gear/appliances or specialized diets tailored to health conditions.

Once your site or social media channel gains regular traffic through SEO and shares, you can monetize viewership with:

• Affiliate fees from ingredients and kitchen tools
• Advertising revenue
• Packaged eBooks or video series
• Sponsorships from relevant brands.

22. Share Stock Tips

If you’re able to predict short term market swings and stock price movements with reasonable accuracy, you can build authority as a stock tip provider. Share your advice through a blog, email newsletter, YouTube Channel or via social media posts.

Over time by helping followers pick winning trades, you can attract premium subscribers to more exclusive & advanced trading groups or signal services.

23. Start Local Tour/Activity Company

Visitors in any major city are always looking for reliable providers to book walking tours, pub crawls, bar hopping adventures etc. with. Leverage popular sites like Airbnb Experiences, Viator and GetYourGuide which handle external marketing and payments so you can focus solely on crafting 5 star tour experiences.

All that’s needed from your end is passion and deep local know-how – making this an amazing lifestyle side business opportunity.

24. Monetize a Newsletter

Publishing your own email newsletter around a specific niche remains one of the most direct ways to regularly engage with an audience online. You can then monetize loyal subscribers over time through:

• Affiliate marketing
• Premium subscriptions
• Sponsored post slots
• Dedicated product releases.

LMS platforms like Substack, Revue and ConvertKit handle all the newsletter creation, sending and analytics backend.

25. Start Video Editing/Animation

Skilled video editors and animators are in perpetual demand by both businesses as well as content creators. With increasing video consumption across social media, opportunities exist across activities like:

• Outputting final cuts
• Motion graphic creation
• Visual effect enhancements
• Audio cleanup and scoring
• Captioning and transcriptions
• Trailer creations.

You can promote your editing services on marketplaces like Fiverr and Upwork to land initial clients, converting the best fits into long term regular business.

26. Publish Books on Kindle Direct

The self-publishing revolution has opened up opportunities for any aspiring authors to release eBooks on Amazon through their free Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) program.

Books focused on non-fiction topics which solve painful problems or teach specialized skills tend to attract more organic interest leading to ongoing passive royalty payments with minimal additional effort.

27. Start a Handyman Business

Homeowners always have small household projects or repairs needed which don’t require a full handyman crew to complete. Examples include simple plumbing, changing light bulbs, patching walls, or minor carpenting work.

You can promote your affordable handyman services across local Facebook Groups, NextDoor or just by going door to door with printed flyers around your neighborhood.

28. Test Products for Cash

Consumer goods companies like Unilever, P&G and L’Oreal rely on regular people to test upcoming product releases and provide detailed feedback before large scale manufacturing.

Platforms like TryMyUI.com and Validately connect testers directly with brands to select the right demographic fit for specific products being evaluated – resulting in easy cash payments or free stuff for your ongoing participation.

29. Enter Online Contests

An extremely popular (albeit competitive) side hustle involves maximizing entries across the hundreds of online contests running at any given point. From filling out simple surveys for $500 cash prizes to submitting recipes to win luxury vacations, you can significantly boost total lifetime winnings by just marginally increasing daily contest participation.

Sites like PrizeGrab make this entire process much more structured, showcasing upcoming contests and measurable historical odds for the likelihood of winning.

30. Teach Music Lessons Online

From piano to guitar to singing and beyond, online music tutoring platforms like TakeLessons bring eager students and qualified instructors together. You can teach music theory, instruments, composition, production techniques and more without ever leaving your home studio setup!

Hourly fees range wildly based on your skill level, reputation and student demand – starting around $20 per hour for beginners and going upwards of $100+ per hour for highly specialized fields like sound engineering.

31. Proofread Content

Strong writing abilities can be monetized quickly through freelance proofreading gigs found on sites like Upwork, Fiverr and Freelancer. Common projects include:

• Fixing grammar errors
• Restructuring content for clarity
• Ensuring brand consistency
• Formatting eBooks/articles properly
• Flagging incorrect facts or citations

This home based side hustle pays decently at $20-50 per hour spent proofing with clients providing the raw content to be cleaned up and polished.

Let‘s Recap…

As you can see, there exists a nearly unlimited array of side hustle and online business ideas you can start today utilizing social media.

The key is identifying options which closely align with your inherent interests, skills and abilities. Building deep experience over time eventually allows drastically scaling income by catering to market demand.

With so many different models and strategies now proven, the possibilities remain endless regardless of background, education or prior professional achievements.

Remember, while occasional side revenue is great – ultimately viewing this as building towards eventual full time self employment is ideal financially.

By tapping into exponential digital growth patterns and capitalizing early on emerging tech trends, the most successful online entrepreneurs set themselves up to earn equity type upside for years into the future.