When it comes to picking a side hustle idea or looking for different sources of income, any amount can make a difference.

It does’t matter if you use passive income apps to make extra beermoney or run a successful business that makes an extra $1,000 per month or more; progress is progress!

However, at the same time, our time is precious. As I discovered recently in my paid survey experiment, some side hustles have a very high opportunity cost which people should take into consideration.

So, today we’re going to break down 5 sources of income you can leverage to increase your monthly income.

However, the catch is that these ideas for side income are all going to have the potential to make an extra $1,000 per month.

So, if you’re looking to increase your monthly income in a substantial way, this is the post for you!

The Importance Of Having Different Sources Of Income

I know this is a bit of a touchy subject right now, but it’s an important one nevertheless.

But let me start off by saying that everyone is feeling the sting right now.

It doesn’t matter if you’re self employed, a blogger, or work a 9-5 job…there’s no denying that there is less opportunity at the moment for a lot of people to increase their monthly income, let alone to prevent their income from dipping or disappearing.

This isn’t a post telling you that working harder and hustling is going to fix everything. Frankly, I’m not qualified to give career advice or anything similar right now.

However, I think the world is going to change in some fashion in the near future.

For one, I think that when the dust settles, there will be more people turning to gig economy apps or alternative methods to create different sources of income for themselves.

I also think people will, for a while at least, make an effort to save more money and work on building emergency funds while getting out of debt.

So, this post isn’t an immediate fix or remedy.

However, I hope that you can look at some of ideas for side income mentioned in this post and start planning for the future with a bit of optimism and hope.

How To Make An Extra $1,000 Per Month

If you want to increase your monthly income in the future, the following different sources of income are viable options to consider based on my own experiences and the knowledge that has been shared by other side hustlers.

1. The “Side Hustle Mix.”

This is probably the most feasible way for anyone living in a city to make an extra $1,000 a month. I’m going to shout-out one of my blog friends Financial Panther here for the inspiration on this one.

Kevin, the blogger behind Financial Panther, used to be a lawyer.

However, these days, Kevin makes a bulk of his monthly income from various side hustle ideas (which he documents in monthly reports). This is the concept I’m calling the “side hustle mix.”

Realistically, it’s quite difficult to leverage one single gig economy job into an extra $1,000 a monthly income. Some jobs have a lower hourly rate, while others are capped in terms of work opportunity.

Therefore, I think using a mixture of different gig apps and hustles is the most feasible way for the average city dweller to create different sources of income and hit the $1,000 a month mark.

I say ‘city dweller’ since you sort of need to live in a populous area to have enough gig economy opportunity.

Here are some of the side hustles Kevin uses, as well as some other ones I recommend:

You get the idea.

It’s possible to increase your monthly income by turning to the gig economy.

Depending on where you live, you might even be able to boost your income by an extra $1,000 per month.

2. The Retainer Side Hustle

Now, this idea for side income is a little more vague, and it’s also not perfect for every skill set. However, if you work in certain industries, I think monthly retainers are often more valuable than hourly freelancing.

I’ve been fortunate to have 3 different retainer arrangements over the past few years.

The first two were some of my favorite college side hustles.

One retainer was a $1,000 per month Facebook/Google ads management gig, and the other was a small SEO/website optimization arrangement.

These days, I’ve luckily gotten into a bit of business consulting through Upwork:

I’m by no means a professional consultant or making the bulk of my income from retainer fees.

However, I think I’ve learned a few valuable lessons here about how to secure retainer fees, even if it’s by dumb luck half the time.

Network – My most recent contract came from sending one random email to a company to ask them about a possible collaboration. You never know what can happen.

– My most recent contract came from sending one random email to a company to ask them about a possible collaboration. You never know what can happen. Have A Crystal Clear Value Proposition – You need to be able to quickly summarize the value you’ll add per month and what your project runway is.

– You need to be able to quickly summarize the value you’ll add per month and what your project runway is. Just Ask – In college, one of my best friends (who I ran ads with) legitimately just blurted out $1,000 per month for managing an ad account during negotiations. I think a major barrier for finding retainer work is often just not knowing to ask or being scared to move away from hourly work.

Obviously, some career paths lend themselves a bit better to retainer work than others. Examples of possible retainer arrangements include:

SEO work.

Paid adveritsing.

Consulting.

Social media management/marketing.

However, as long as you’re an expert in your field, you might be able to get creative and find a retainer arrangement (even when working a 9-5 job. All my retainer arrangements have been during school or during a full-time job).

If you want to learn more about the paid advertising side hustle, I suggest checking out a guest post I wrote on how to make money with paid advertising.

3. The Freelance Route

I left my old job a while ago, traveled down to Colombia, and started working full-time as a freelance writer and blogger. Therefore, this isn’t exactly a side hustle for me.

But, it used to be one!

Freelancing is, in my opinion, another excellent way to create different sources of income for yourself by trading some time for extra cash

Now, working as a freelancer while maintaining a full-time job is not easy. You’re looking at some early mornings or late nights (or both) to get work done for clients.

However, like with working on a retainer, even a humble freelance contract can make a massive difference for your finances.

While I was working full-time, I started working on my freelance writing career. A few articles a month, and boom, that was an additional $1,000 a month in income.

According to a survey conducted by Payoneer, the worldwide rate for freelancers is $21 per hour. However, age definitely plays a role:

As you can see, most freelancers (7,000+ took part in this interview and came from 150 different countries) are in the beginning or mid-point of their careers. Understandably, the more experience you have, the higher an hourly rate you can typically charge.

But, even on the low end, $16 per hour is nothing to scoff at.

Even if you don’t hit your extra $1,000 per month in income, you can definitely put a decent dent in your rent or any debt.

Certain industries that lend themselves well to freelance work include:

Writing and publishing.

Programming.

Graphic design.

Marketing.

Copywriting.

You can get started with freelancing by beefing up your resume and looking on various remote job websites.

Alternatively, you can try to turn a current job into more of a freelance basis. I’ve done both methods and it honestly depends on your situation.

Extra Reading – 40 Ways To Make Money Online In 2020.

4. The Blogging Route

Let me start off by saying that starting a blog is the WORST idea you can EVER attempt if money is tight and you need a extra source of income fast.

It took me roughly 2 years to hit $1,000 per month in blogging profit thanks to joining Mediavine. The journey here was not easy, there were expenses along the way, and this project took a tonne of time.

And, as we know from a nifty blogger survey from Digital Nomad Wannabee, a lot of bloggers make no money, let alone over $500 per month from their blogs.

But, if you want to take on a project to increase your monthly income, blogging is an option worth considering.

As long as you give yourself multiple months to over a year and actually put in hours every single week, there’s nothing stopping you from adding a new income stream to your life.

I know bloggers who have reached $1,000 per month much faster than me, as well as others who are still on their way there. However, by working smart and hard, there’s no reason why this reality isn’t possible.

My only suggestion here is to spend time picking your blog niche and to write about what you’re most knowledgeable in.

Ideally, you should really like your blog topic as well since blogging is truly a labor of love…especially when you make $0 from it 😛

5. The Online Business Route

This extra source of income is similar to blogging, but I felt like breaking up this category since it’s much broader than just running a website.

This Online World has tonnes of posts on ways to make money online, and there’s no easy answer or obvious winner where you can say, “ah, this will be an easy path to an extra $1,000 per month.”

Depending on your skills, different ideas make more sense than others.

Here are some of my favorites:

Start An Etsy Store – great for craftsy indivduals.

– great for craftsy indivduals. Sell Print On Demand Products – great for aritsts.

– great for aritsts. Flip Items On eBay – awesome if you have a lot of yard sales or thrift stores in your city.

– awesome if you have a lot of yard sales or thrift stores in your city. Retail Arbitrage – checkout my awesome interview with the owners of a million dollar retail arbitrage hustle.

– checkout my awesome interview with the owners of a million dollar retail arbitrage hustle. Grow A YouTube Channel – not easy, but it’s still possible to make money on YouTube in 2020.

– not easy, but it’s still possible to make money on YouTube in 2020. Write On Medium – I make $100-$200 a month now from Medium, but I don’t put much effort into it. I bet you could work up to $1,000 a month with some serious hustling.

You get the idea. Play to your skills, pick an online business idea, and get to work.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here.

Often times, it’s the simple ideas that work. Just checkout my article on how to make money with memes if you don’t believe me.

Like blogging, however, this route is not guaranteed income, and any revenue you generate might take a while to scale. But, now is the perfect time to plan for the future, so don’t be afraid to get a bit creative!

Final Thoughts

We’re definitely living through some interesting times.

I think the future is going to see a surge in gig economy work, income diversification, and the building of emergency funds. If there’s one thing we’re learning, it’s that it pays to be prepared.

It might difficult to start a side hustle right now, and that is completely fine.

Don’t beat yourself up right now if you can’t be super productive.

Make the most of what’s in your control, stay motivated, and keep your head up and your eyes on the future.

I hope that this list of 5 sources of income at least get the wheels turning for how you can boost you monthly income whenever possible.

Having different sources of income is incredibly powerful. It might take a while to build up to, but diversification can help pay off debt faster, start an emergency fund, or just build wealth for the future.

Just make sure you always weight the opportunity costs associated with a side hustle and consider earning potential.

I made an effort to only include sources of extra income that have the potential to make an extra $1,000 per month, but nothing is set in stone. If you give up too much in the pursuit of wealth, be it health, family time, or more lucrative opportunities, it isn’t worth it.

Hope everyone takes care and finds something in this list to help boost their monthly income!

I’ll catch you guys in the next one! 🙂