There’s a lot of talk on the internet about side hustles. Unfortunately, most of these side hustles suffer from a variety of problems. The biggest problem being that many side hustles just aren’t scalable or sustainable over the long run.
Today, we’re going to look at what I consider to be the best bang-for-your-buck side hustle: blogging.
Whether you’re looking to make a few extra hundred bucks a month, or build a six-figure business, I believe blogging is one of the most underrated side hustles out there.
Here are 5 reasons why blogging is the best side hustle:
1. Blogging Teaches You Other High Value Skills
You’ll notice that “blogging is super duper easy!” is not one of the reasons in this list. That’s because a lot of skills actually go into learning how to blog.
In order to become a great blogger, you have to learn:
- SEO
- WordPress
- Analytics
- And of course, how to write for the web
While that may sound like a lot, this skillset you’ll be building is actually one of the biggest benefits of blogging. For one thing, it creates a certain barrier of entry. Many people don’t learn any of the skills above and quickly abandon their blog.
But more importantly, each of these skills is immensely valuable on its own. There are whole businesses built solely around WordPress services, SEO, writing, or content marketing.
That means, if you want to, you can leverage these skills into other income-producing opportunities down the road.
Think about it:
- You can blog for other people (AKA, clients) as a freelancer
- You can consult on SEO or analytics
- You could start a content marketing agency
So while blogging itself is a great side hustle, it also gives you a strong foundation in digital marketing more broadly. You can choose to use those skills in lots of lucrative ways.
2. Blogging is Ultra-Scaleable (If You Want It To Be)
I’ve written before about how I’m not one of these people obsessed with “scaling” their business.
However, for some people, scaling is a logical next step in what they want for their business and lifestyle. In certain businesses though, delegating and outsourcing can be a nightmare.
Luckily for you, blogging isn’t one of those industries. There are a lot of talented writers out there who you can outsource your writing to if you reach that point.
This means all the cash your blog generates can easily be reinvested into paying writers to produce more content. The added content produces added revenue, and on and on the cycle goes. Blogging as a business model can thus produce a pretty effective flywheel.
3. You Can Build a Blog Into A Full-Fledged Business
If you’re going to spend your time working at something on the side, why not build an actual business instead of a short-term hustle?
While I’m calling blogging a side hustle for the purpose of this article, the truth is that it can be built into a very robust and resilient business. There are plenty of million dollar blogs out there. You’ve probably spent time on a bunch of these blogs without ever considering how much money they make.
For example, here are two great, yet very different, million dollar blogs:
Of course, you don’t have to go into this hoping to build a million dollar blogging business. I’m just giving you these examples to show you what’s possible. This flexibility of blogging is another mini-benefit: you can blog on the side and make a few hundred or thousand bucks a month, or scale to the heavens. The internet is your oyster.
4. You Can Blog About (Almost) Anything You Want
What are you already knowledgeable about? What do you enjoy learning about for fun?
RVs? Fishing? Weightlifting? Shoes?
The great thing about blogging is you can write in nearly any niche. This is great because it makes this “side hustle” feel less like work and more like a labor of love or passion project. Writing about something you enjoy can make blogging enjoyable and sustainable over the long-term, something which isn’t necessarily true of all side hustles.
I’ve done tons of side hustles over the years: moving, cleaning, flipping stuff on eBay. You name it.
Take it from me: none of those things are as fun as writing about something you genuinely enjoy.
5. Blogging is Alive and Well
“But Corbin, isn’t blogging dead?”
No, gentle reader, not at all.
Yes, newer content forms like video may be growing more rapidly. But blogs aren’t going anywhere.
If you don’t believe me – just look at the resiliency of paperback books. Despite movies, blogs, and eReaders, there will always be a market for physical books. And that’s an old-school, analog medium.
If books can stand the test of time (even in the face of evolving technology and shrinking attention spans), blogs will be read and desired for well into the foreseeable future.
How to Blog For Fun and For Money
So, you want to be a blogger?
Good news: a lot of the best blogging info out there is available for free.
To start with, though, it’s important to learn about SEO.
To do so, I recommend checking out two other articles of mine:
As you’ll learn if you read those articles, there are a lot of SEO gurus, keyword research tools, and other things you don’t need to get started blogging.
Instead, you’ll get tons of mileage out of just following Income School and Miles Beckler on YouTube. I learned 90% of what I know about blogging from those guys. They do sell paid products, but a lot of their best information is right up on YouTube for free.
Just do a quick YouTube search for “Income School blogging” or “Miles Beckler blogging.”
Good luck and happy blogging 🙂