5 Great Digital Marketing Side Hustles

In this modern world, I think we can all agree that learning Digital Marketing Side Hustles can be quite useful since it can be your main source of income, or it could also just be a new side hustle. Either way, it’s a great idea. The problem with this is, that it is questionable if these new “tactics” are actually reliable or if it is just some sort of scam.

It’s nothing new to see people talk about how they make tons and tons of money with these things, and they offer you some kind of course, to “help” you learn the skill, but it ends being a waste of your money, since the real way on how they make money is selling you useless courses! Well, keep reading, because I am about to give you a list of 5 Digital Marketing side hustles that actually work!

But you have to keep in mind, that the only real way of knowing if any of these work, is trying them yourself, and like everything else, you will have to put effort in the Business you choose to make an income of it. 🙂

Next, as promised, here are the 5 Digital Marketing Side Hustles:

1. Affiliate Marketing

What is Affiliate Marketing?

The way this type of business model works, is that you promote a certain product, brand or company through different platforms like social media, a website, blog, or even through e-mails. For example, if you decide to promote over social media, you could make posts showing how the product works, or why it’s worth it to buy it. An idea for a post could be something like this:

Find your niche

The first step to start with Affiliate Marketing, is to find a niche that you are interested in and that you know you will be able to make content of. For example, let’s say you are a dog lover. It is possible that you own a dog in this case. You could promote products for dogs, such as toys, dog clothes or even dog food. See what I mean? It will be way easier to make content out of this niche since it is something you like. So make sure to choose something that you know how it works.

Choose your Digital Marketing Platform

Once you have decided what niche works the best for you, it’s time for the next step!

It is time you decide in what kind of platform you will be advertising the product. You get to be creative with this. A great option a lot of people choose, is through social media. Specifically through TikTok and Instagram. You can make videos and upload them to both social media platforms. This way you can reach a bigger audience. Yet social media isn’t the only option. You can opt for something more traditional like writing blogs or advertising through e-mails. The decision is up to you!

Find Companies/Brands

I define the third step as the part where you go out and look for companies or brands that are looking to hire affiliate marketers. This might seem hard, but it is actually pretty simple. You can go on Google and search for companies hiring on your specific niche. After browsing a bit, I can assure you, that you will find a company. There is an easier way, though! If you go to https://www.upwork.com, it’s very likely you’ll find a job there, since they have over 300 remote affiliate marketing jobs.

Make Good Quality Content

It is finally time to get to work! Now that you are hired, you will have to start to make content for the brand, remember, it has to be good quality content in order for people to want to buy the product! If you choose to do this in a video based way, make sure your camera is always clean, learn how to edit your videos, etc. You got to find a way to stand out from other affiliate marketers.

Start Getting Your Paycheck

Last Step! Once people start to buy the product you are promoting, you need to drive that traffic to your affiliate links, so when they click on them and buy the product you can start to make money! Getting up to this step will require time and dedication, so don’t get disappointed if it doesn’t work right away.

Display Ads

The second item of the list is Display ads.

As the name tells you already, Display Ads, are ads that appear while the user is already surfing on the internet.

Picture taken from: https://www.matthieu-tranvan.fr

The picture is one example of Display ads, these ads can be pictures like this example, it could be an interactive ad, or even a video based ad. Mostly, they are displayed as banners, and pop up ads.

Now, you are probably asking yourself: How can this be one of the digital marketing skills? Well let me explain! If you own some kind of blog or website, you could display some ads on the background of your content. Here are the steps to follow:

Find your audience

Like in the Affiliate Marketing skill, you need to have a niche, which you obviously already do if you already run a website. So let’s say you run a website based on taking care of gardens. Well, you could run ads about the best seeds to buy, which fertilizer to use, what gardening hose is best… The point here is that the ads you run have to match with the content you post.

Look for advertisers

Finding your ad network. Even though this might seem a bit difficult, I am here to tell you that it is quite simple! There are platforms that will make it a lot easier for you. One of these options is https://smartyads.com. Basically, what this platform will do, is connect you to advertisers that are looking for publishers! See? Pretty simple.

Start Displaying Ads

Once you have the approval, the ad network will give you some ad code snippets, and it will be your job to put the snippets on the sections of your site, where you want the ads to be seen. This could be on the header, sidebar or even within the content.

That’s all! You are all ready to make some extra cash with this skill!

3. E-Commerce

Choose your theme

As in all the other skills, you will have to find a specific niche, for example if you would be to create a kitchen supply store, you would have items related to cooking or even products related to the kitchen.

The best idea is to make your niche based on something you know and like, since you will understand the needs and wants of your future customers.

Your E-commerce platform

Find your e-commerce platform. There are some like Shopify, but if you prefer to start with a free platform, I recommend you to start with https://www.bigcartel.com. This is a free platform, and it will give you a pretty good idea of how e-commerce works.

Sell and Advertise

Now you get to put your products on your store! Here comes the tricky part, if you want to start to sell, you will have to advertise your product, which comes very hand in hand with Affiliate Marketing. Just that in this case you would be advertising your own.

Content Creator:

Now, you are probably thinking that being a content Creator has to be through TikTok and Instagram only. Even though Social Media content creation is indeed one of the most popular ones, there are more ways to do content creation.

If you have some kind of knowledge or skill you would like to show the world, you can perfectly merge it with Content Creation. For example, you could have a podcast, a blog or a website with a certain niche, maybe video/image based content, etc. Just make sure that the way you present your content needs to stand out from all the other content that is out there.

But… how can you do that?

Stand out from the rest

As usual, you will have a niche for this. But since you are creating this content from scratch, it will be way easier for you to understand your audience. This is because you know what the pain points are, what they prefer and want, long story short: You know what these people want to see. Obviously, this will be very different for every niche, so it is a great way to get creative!

Good Quality Content

This might seem very obvious, but it is a key point. The content needs to be good quality content. If you, for example, chose to do video based content, you will have to learn about how to edit your videos properly, so your audience stays engaged and interested. If you have a website, you will want to make sure that the information is real, and also be very careful to spell all the words right!

Be Consistent

Consistency is key. You can have the right content for the right people, have great content quality, but if you are not consistent, it won’t bring you anywhere. Don’t be scared to try new things, with time you will figure out what works and does not work for your content creation.

Graphic Design Services

If you are more of a creative person, this is one of the Digital Marketing Side Hustles for you. What better than being able to be a bit creative and getting paid for it?

There are lots of companies that would gladly hire Graphic Designers to create more attractive ads.

Start Designing

First, familiarize yourself with some graphic designer software programs and practice making some designs. Try different styles. As they always say, practice makes perfect!

Make a marketing portfolio

This next step is very important! After you have a few good samples of your work, make a portfolio with the best you got, so your future clients can see what you got. For your portfolio, you can use platforms like https://dribbble.com

Start your Side Hustle!

The last step is getting the job. The easiest way to do this, is to sign up at We Work Remotely to be able to work from any place!

As you see, there are a lot of ways to start to make more money. The awesome part with these Digital Marketing Side Hustles is that you get to be in charge of how and when you do it. This is perfect in case you already have a job, and you would like to spend 1–3 hours a day in a side hustle. Afer all, who doesnt like a bit of extra cash?

Once you get fluent in whichever hustle you choose, you will be able to enjoy the fruits of your work. Remeber that even if it is a side hustle, it is still a job and you will have to treat it like one. Be consistent, do a good job and always be open for new ideas! It is proven that the most succesful bussines are the ones that are able to keep on opening themselfves to new ways of doing things.

A great option could even be to start one of these side hustles with a friend. This way you both would be spending time in it, and it is likely that you will have results in a faster time line. Either way, the succes will depend on the time and effort you put in.

If you have any questiones about any of these Digital Marketing Side Hustles you are more then welcome to contact me here! I am more then happy to help you out!