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The following is a guest post by Patrick Foster. Patrick is an ecommerce writer & marketer. As an ecommerce marketer with 10+ years in the industry, he is currently writing as a side hustle. He loves to create content for entrepreneurs and business owners alike.

In the 21st century, there are all sorts of ways to make money – particularly when it’s extra money on the side. If you’ve got the drive and the skills, almost anything is achievable. But sometimes it’s hard to pick a direction, and even harder to figure out what will actually be lucrative. We become so overwhelmed by choice that we end up doing nothing at all. The thing is that as a marketer, you already have an incredibly useful skill that will help you considerably in your efforts – whatever you decide to do. So without further ado, here are five cool ways that you can start side hustling today and turn your spare hours into spare cash.

Freelancing, coaching or consulting

There are all sorts of freelance work available online. The internet is a wonderful thing. Freelance websites like Upwork are good places to start, or alternatively, you can set yourself up as an online freelancer with your own website. There’s demand for all sorts of digital marketing skills nowadays, particularly if you have some knowledge of SEO. Get it right and you could earn around $70-80 per hour as an SEO consultant.

Running your own blog is highly recommended and will provide a strong foundation from which to get your name out there. Beyond that, you can also look to become a coach or consultant and offer your marketing skills to other businesses. Whether you’re a social media whizz or a PPC prodigy, there’s a market out there for your expertise. Take a look at Clarity: the startup platform that connects experts with entrepreneurs.

Writing and guest posting

If you’re adept at crafting compelling copy, then it’s time to put these useful skills to work. At the outset, you will certainly want to create a blog of your own in order to showcase your work. Start small and begin by pitching your content for free to small writing and marketing websites. Once you’ve started to build a name for yourself, you can begin to reach out to some of the bigger (paying) outlets. Here’s a list of websites that will pay you for good content.

Make sure you carefully research each website you approach before pitching to editors. Many will already have a list of guidelines for their guest writers to follow. Some may want you to pitch ideas; others will ask for a draft. As a writer, you can expect to charge around $50 to write a guest post for a paying website. Some may offer you more if the post does well.

Affiliate marketing

If you already have a blog, or are in the process of creating one, then an additional way to generate revenue from that blog is through affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketers use their websites to promote certain products or businesses in exchange for a percentage of the resulting profits. It’s not like owning an online store where you sell the products yourself – you simply link visitors through to a separate outlet, who then pay you for that service.

Affiliate marketing is not really a get-rich-quick scheme, but it can be a valuable way to generate revenue from doing almost nothing. Obviously, the more traffic you can drive to your affiliate content, the better you are likely to do. You get out what you put in, but as a marketer, you are already one step ahead on that score. First things first: you’ll need a review website. Read this guide to making money from affiliate marketing.

Flipping websites

Website flipping is a relatively new practice that refers to the art of buying, improving and selling websites – much in the same way that a property investor might buy, renovate and sell a house.

It takes time to turn website flipping into a successful side hustle, but the financial rewards can be well worth it.

Your best bet is to look for niche websites and online stores that have some clear profit potential. Through a marketplace like Exchange, you can buy and sell online stores with very little fuss, whether newly formed or already partway established.

The beauty of website flipping is that, unlike creating an online store from scratch, you walk into a readymade business that you can use as a foundation to improve on, whether that’s a watch website or a fad-fuelling fidget spinner store.

Online courses

As a marketer, you already have something valuable to teach.

And with training websites like Udemy, you can set up an online course for just about anything and charge whatever you feel is fair. Pathwright is another good option, as is your own website – as long as you can get the traffic.

Create your online course around whatever elements of marketing you know best, whether it’s SEO, PPC, influencer outreach, social advertising, or whatever.

If you’ve never put together an online course before, here’s a good Forbes article.

Taking Udemy as an example, your expected earnings will likely vary depending on what exactly your course is about.

Digital courses tend to do quite well, and with the average instructor making around $7,000 a year (according to Forbes) that’s not so bad for a side venture!

We offer a few online courses ourselves – check them out here.

There are options for almost anyone to make a bit of extra cash on the side, and as a marketer, you’re in a strong position. The online world has removed many barriers, but it’s also increased competition, so be sure to put your canny skills to good use. What will your next side hustle adventure look like?

If you need more ideas about how you can earn money on the side, here is an extensive list of 27 awesome ideas to make some extra cash!

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