In a world that has become virtual and millions of people spend a lot of their time on the internet searching for one information or the other, blogging has become a great way to earn some extra cash.

Blogging is a great way to make money on the go, especially for people who have something to tell the world. It is like killing two birds with one stone.

Anyone can blog, you don’t have to be a web guru to start your own blog and earn from it.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not rocket science, with a rudimentary knowledge of the internet, an interesting set of topics to discuss and a great writing skill, you can be a proud owner of a money-making blog. 

Even though it is not rocket science, it is also not so easy. One has to be determined and consistent to build traffic and get followers.

As a newbie blogger, don’t expect to start making money as soon as you get your blog started, well except you are a social media star with thousands of followers.

If you are looking to start a blog and earn a tangible income from it, there are certain things you must do that will set you apart from thousands of others who are doing the same thing you are doing. 

How to start a blog

There are some steps you must take to start your own blog and create an online presence, putting you on the internet map for your potential readers to find you.

Decide on a niche

You can’t be a jack of all trades.  Before you start your blog, you have to decide on what you will be writing about.

Your niche should be what a lot of people can relate with because this will help your blog get a good following.

You are not for everyone, so you should not be all over the place. Decide on the theme of your blog and stick to it. The theme of your blog will help you in deciding on a good name for the blog.

   

Get a good domain name 

After deciding on a theme, the next step is getting a domain name. These days, domain names are high in demand and there are a lot of new extensions available. However, I will advise that you get one with the .com domain extension.

If you cannot find one with a .com extension, be careful when choosing other extensions so as not to make it country-specific. 

Also, make sure your domain name is as short as possible. Make sure your domain name is not more than 15 characters and avoid using hyphens. A trick for SEO bonus is to use a keyword in your niche within the domain name.

Once you have your main keyword, you can try a website like LeanDomainSearch to get an idea of the domain name.

Let’s say for example you want to be writing about coffee on your blog.

If you type in the word ‘coffee’ in LeanDomainSearch, the website will give you an idea of words you can have before or after the word coffee.

Choose a web hosting services

There are several great hosting companies but make sure to select the best one for your blog.

Before settling for a hosting account, read reviews on the account to make sure the provider comes with little or no problem.

Most importantly, ensure that your hosting account has a WordPress plugin. 

There are a lot of web hosting providers you can choose from. SiteGround and BlueHost are two of the best out there. This blog (Abundance Aware) is hosted on SiteGround and it’s really been the best decision because SiteGround service is excellent.

If you are just a beginner and want one of the cheapest in the market, BlueHost is the one to go for. If you are thinking long term and want the most robust and reliable hosting service, you can consider SiteGround.

 

Choose Content Management System (CMS)

The next thing you need after chosen a web hosting service is a content management system (CMS).

What your blog is about will influence the CMS that will be best.

For most bloggers, WordPress is far the best CMS. WordPress is free and open-source.

About 30percent of world websites use WordPress. The majority of bloggers use WordPress because it is the best. The major advantage of WordPress is the fact that almost anything is possible on WordPress. 

Because it is open-source, there is a mind-blowing number of plugins available to help you do almost any customization on your website.

The majority of the other CMS are templates and have limitations to what you can do.

WordPress Theme

While setting up your WordPress account, you need to select a theme, i.e what will your blog look like?

There are thousands of themes to choose from, and you can opt for either a free or premium theme.

One of the best ones I will recommend to you is Astra. I use Astra Pro on another website I own. I own another website where I write on another passion I have. Cacao & Cocoa use the Astra Pro theme.

Astra is a simple theme to use. It is a fully customizable & fast theme that you will love.

Within a short period of time, you can create your website because Astra Pro comes with a lot of pre-built templates.

You can get Astra by clicking here.

Install Google Analytics

Google analytics help in tracking your blogging experience. 

Through Google Analytics you will be able to see how your blog is making progress regarding the number of views it’s getting.

Start creating contents

After doing all this, you can now start your writing properly. To garner a lot of followers to your blog, you have to write keyword-focused content and do it consistently.

While curating your content, you must make sure it is engaging and one that will keep your readers coming back for more.

Writing engaging content will boost your engagement and help you rank high on Search Engine Results Pages. 

Decide on a way to monetise your blog

Your blog may not start making money as soon as you’d like but with consistency and smart work, you can build a large following and then monetise your blog.

Monetisation Methods

As a blog owner who has several followers and generates lots of traffic on their website, you can earn real money from your blog through the following:

Affiliate Marketing

This is one of the most common ways for a blogger to make money.

This involves promoting the products of other brands or business and they, in turn, pay you some commission for every client you bring.

Affiliate marketing is one of the best and easiest ways to earn money from your blog.

It is when you advertise a business’ product on your site and get paid for every purchase that is made through you. 

To be an affiliate marketer, having great traffic to your site is not enough, you have to convince your readers to buy the product.

It is usually advisable to not promote products or services you do not use or do not know about.

The sales you make through affiliate links are tracked so the company you are in partnership with could tell how many customers come from you and pay you accordingly.

Advert

Generating a lot of traffic on your blog would attract brands in your niche who want to advertise their business.

You may also consider Google Adsense as it is a great way to start using ads to monetise your blog if you have no brand pining for you.

There are other advertising agencies like MediaVine, Ezoic, and AdThrive.

They do have high requirements. When your blog gets to meet their requirements, you can earn good morning when you get accepted by them. 

Freelance Writing

Being a good writer of a great blog already qualifies you to be a freelance blogger. You can offer your service as a writer to other bloggers, brands, or businesses who find it hard to express themselves. 

Having well-written blog posts on your page would serve as reference points for would-be clients.

Write and sell online books or courses

As a professional in your field and a blogger who interacts well with their followers, you can create and sell courses or books on what your readers want.

If your followers already see value in what you are dishing out for free so they would definitely pay to learn more. 

Offer a consulting service

Sometimes, people want a one on one coaching as regards some things because it provides a more in-depth and personalised experience.

Being an expert in your field, you can offer to teach, coach, or advise your audience personally.

To get the right audience interested in your consulting service, you have to write targeted posts on topics your type of potential clients cares about.

How to boost your web traffic

As a blog owner looking to monetise their blog, web traffic is no joke as this would serve as a yardstick for your blog’s success as well as monetising capabilities.

There are a lot of ways you can increase web traffic to your site.

Social Media

You can leverage social media channels to get traffic to your blog. It is free to open an account on social media channels.

It is now a must for a business or website to have a page on social medial channels like Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and others.

You need to be active on social media. You can choose a social media channel that is relevant to your niche. It can be a grind to use all of them so it is better to choose about two and be active on the platform.

Youtube is one of the great ways to get traffic. The good thing about Youtube is that you do not need to show your face if you don’t want to.

Pinterest

One of the ways most bloggers get traffic to their website is Pinterest.

Pinterest is an image-sharing social media platform. What makes Pinterest a good place where people go to find information is the attractiveness of the images on it.

Pinterest is a must for any blogger that wants to drive a lot of traffics to their website.

Guest Post

Make sure to familiarise yourself with bloggers in your niche.

Inviting guest bloggers to your blog will boost your traffic as some of their own members might take an interest in your content through them.

You can also decide to write for other blogs as well as this will have the same effect.

Advertise

As a beginner, this might not be advisable because it can cost a lot of money.

Advertising your blog through paid search can bring traffic to your website. You can put your blog in front of a lot of people by using different paid channels suited to your purpose.

You can advertise on Google or social media channels like Facebook and Instagram.

Use SEO Optimally

Optimize your blog posts for search engines to boost traffic to your site. Make the most of image alt text, use meta descriptions, and don’t forget to create internal links to new content.

All these would boost your content’s engagement and help your blog to come up in Google search.

Use popular keywords

Using popular keywords in your content will make sure it gets seen fast. Make sure to use long-tail keywords as they account for a large number of web searches.

Eye-catching headlines

A lot of great posts go unread because of wacky headlines.

Writing a headline that would pique your reader’s interest is a great way to direct traffic to your site.

There are a lot of genuine ways to make money online if you have the right information.

It can be very overwhelming to get started making money online. Especially if the information you are reading is not broken down into a simple way to understand. It is very easy to get confused by lots of information available on the internet.

Before you start

Before I give you my list of genuine ways to make money online. Let me give you some important things you need to understand before you start any online money-making business.

 

Time

It is very important to know that any way you choose to make money online will take time. This is especially true if you are completely new to online business. Nothing will happen by magic. The time factor is the most important mindset shift required to make any online money-making venture work.

We are now living in a time in history whereby people expect things to happen very quickly. But the reality is that to get any tangible result, it will take time. It won’t happen overnight.

We often underestimate how long a project will take. Impatience now rules our mind and it is a bad thing. There is no such thing as making easy or free money online. A lot of time will need to be devoted.

When you see people that have made money online, if they are honest they will tell you it isn’t easy. They will tell you about the countless hours spent in developing a product or service before they were able to earn any money through their online business.

Education

I am sure you must be wondering why I am talking about education. I am not talking about a university degree. A college degree is not required to start an online business.

However, you need to educate yourself about any online business you choose for you to get any result.

Thanks to the internet, it is very easy to teach yourself a lot of things. There is a wealth of information on the internet about various subjects.

When you identify the type of online business you want to do, look for helpful information online. Then immerse yourself in learning.

As long as you have an internet connection, most of the information online is free.

Alternatively, you can pay for a course someone else put together. The coaching or mentoring option could also help you get results faster. Having a coach or mentor does not guarantee results without hard work, it only makes the journey easier for you.

I must say that you have to be careful not to fall into the hands of dubious people. It is easy to do this in an attempt to buy a course or seek a coach or mentor.

Consistency

If there is one thing that will help you to succeed, it is consistency in efforts.

Anyone who cannot put in consistent work will not make tangible money online. You have to stay engaged and avoid distractions.

If it was easy to make money online, everyone will be doing it. Many people start the journey, fail to be consistent and end up quitting.

Consistency means that you are committed to sustained effort in other to achieve your goal of making money online.

Something that has helped me personally in my online side hustle is scheduling. I use calendar blocking to schedule my work. This helps me know exactly what I need to do each day of the week to help move my business forward.

I consistently wake up early to get work done. Small consistent effort every day can help you to achieve a big result over a period of time.

Genuine online businesses

1. Sell physical products

One of the best ways to earn money online is to sell a physical product. The risk of starting a business selling physical product has been reduced to almost zero because of the internet. You can start making money online by selling physical products.

These are the best platforms where you can sell physical products

• Amazon
• eBay
• Etsy
• Vinted
• Stockx

I have written a number of articles about how to start selling on Amazon. Check the list of my selling on Amazon articles below.

• How to Start Selling Books on Amazon
• How to find product to sell on Amazon
• How to build a brand on Amazon
• Amazon FBA for beginners – How does it work

If you have an idea of a very niche unique product. You can set up your own Shopify eCommerce store where you can sell the products to customers.

The common rule is that your products need to solve specific problems. And it is important that the product is not easily available in usual brick and mortar shops on the high street.

By this, you have more chance of customers coming to buy it online.

One of the other ways to make money online is to start a dropshipping business. The good thing about dropshipping is that you are not going to hold any stock. Its simply selling other peoples products.

2. Sell digital products

Another genuine way to make money online is to sell digital products. There are a variety of digital products you can sell online.

The most obvious digital product is an ebook. There are other digital products that you can sell online.

You can create a template that someone might find useful and will be happy to pay you for it. On marketplaces like Etsy, you can upload a template you have created and make it available for sale.

The screenshot below is from Etsy which shows some budgeting planner template that are available for sale.

You can research on a subject you can create a template for and start making money online when people buy.

 

3. Sell courses

Making money online is not about clicking a few buttons and money starts rolling into your bank account.

If you have knowledge about a topic than the majority of people don’t know. There is a chance that someone will be ready to pay you for what you know.

On websites like Udemy, you can create educational videos on a subject you know a lot about. Is it easy to create a course? No, it is not, it takes hard work and time.

Your courses can also be hosted on websites like Thinkific or Teachable. The amazing thing about courses is that it will be available for people from all over the world which provide limitless opportunity to earn money.

If you can put in the work, you can create a course, make it available online and start earning money genuinely online.

 

4. Freelancing/ Virtual Assistant

The internet provides opportunities for ordinary everyday people who have niche knowledge. They can make themself available for people all over the world.

You can serve people all over the world with your knowledge. Platforms like People Per Hour, Fiverr and UpWork make it easy for you to offer valuable services to entrepreneurs and business people.

As a freelance or virtual assistant, people all over the world can seek your service and you can get paid.

I have paid people for various services like article editing, logo design, website error fixing. The list goes on and on. If you have any special skill, you can genuinely earn money for your skills online.

Final Thought

Making money online requires a lot of grinds and hard work. Anyone ready to learn and put in the work can genuinely earn money online.

I wrote a very detailed article on 101 Side Hustle Ideas. The list contains both online and offline side hustle ideas. If you are only interested in earning money online, just pick from some of the online related side hustles. The link is below

• 101 Side Hustles Ideas

 

 

Importing from any country including China can be overwhelming. But actually, importing from China and sell on Amazon isn’t as difficult as you might think.

I have been importing from China and selling on Amazon for over 3 years as at the time of writing this article.

In this article, I am going to take you through my step by step process of importing from China and selling on Amazon.

Step 1: Find a product

This is the most important step for an obvious reason. Without a product you intend to sell, there is no point thinking about importation.

One of the most challenging parts of selling on Amazon is finding a product.

Your success on Amazon depends on finding a product that people want to buy. There is no point importing a product that people are not interested in.

To succeed on Amazon, you must do a proper market analysis and come up with a unique product that you will bring to the market place.

I wrote an article about how to find a product to sell on Amazon, perhaps you might be interested in reading it after this one.

Read More

• How to find a product to sell on Amazon

Step 2: List the product for sale on Amazon

Listing a product is important for many reasons.

It will give you the assurance that you are allowed to sell the product on Amazon.

If you are new to selling on Amazon. They don’t trust you yet so they will not allow you to sell in all the categories. For example, if you are a new seller, you might not be allowed to list a product in the health and personal care category.

I know a lot of people who think they can just list any product for sale on Amazon. Before you go and contact a supplier, make sure you check that you will be able to sell the product.

Step 3: Validate your product idea

After listing the product for sale on Amazon, the next stage is to validate your idea.

There is nothing new under the sun. The chances are that the product you want to sell already exist on the shelf in a shop somewhere.

Obviously, you want to make yours different and unique. You don’t want to go and copy the exact product someone already have for sale on Amazon. However, you can use an existing similar product from retailers to validate your idea.

Part of my process of bringing a new product to Amazon marketplace is to test the product on Amazon.

I usually check on Amazon if customers are interested in buying the product.

I would buy between 5 to 10 units of the product from a retailer in a high street or online shop. List it for sale on Amazon. I would send the product to Amazon fulfilment centre.

I will then run an advert on Amazon. The advert will help to put the product in front of customers. After a few days, I would check how the advert is performing.

There is a chance that some of the product will be sold through the advert.

The advert report will show me, how many people on a daily basis were searching for that product on Amazon.

The report will also show me the exact keywords customers typed for searching for the product.

This stage is crucial and very important in making the decision to go further to find a supplier that will supply the product.

Stage 4: Find a supplier

This stage is very important in your process of importing from China.

There are various platforms you can use to investigate and choose a supplier to manufacture your product in China.

The platform that is by far better than all the rest is Alibaba. I have personally used Alibaba to find supplier since I began importing from China in 2017.

Some of the things that are very important to check when choosing suppliers on Alibaba are

1. Gold Supplier

This is also very important.

Suppliers with Gold supplier symbol are the ones Alibaba have verified and earned their trust.

In some cases, the supplier with Gold status has been doing business for a good number of years and have good integrity.

2. Alibaba Trade Assurance

Make sure a supplier you choose has Alibaba Trade Assurance.

The is like insurance against supplier not keeping to their promise.

If you pay a supplier and they fail to deliver the goods. You can report them to Alibaba and they will pay you the money back.

Make sure all your transactions go through the trade assurance especially when you are just starting off.

Stage 5: Sample for Quality Check

After finding a reputable supplier. You can now place an order for a sample.

Seeing photos on Alibaba is not good enough.

You need to ask them to send you a sample. In most case, they don’t charge for the sample. However, you will need to pay for the shipping cost.

The sample is an opportunity to check that the factory will be able to meet the standard of the quality you want.

You want a product that is of high quality so you will not be getting a complaint from customers.

If there are any changes you will like to make to the product, you can communicate with the supplier after you have seen and assess the sample.

Stage 6: Find a Freight Forwarder (Sea or Air)

Before you make payment for the initial deposit. It is important to ask questions about shipping. At this stage, you need to understand the shipping terms.

There are three major terms namely FOB, EXW and CIF.

The first two are the most common

FOB (Free on Board)

The supplier will be responsible for getting your goods to the seaport.

Your supplier will be responsible for transportation of the goods to the port of shipment and the cost of loading.

It worth mentioned that the FOB quote usually will be more than EXW quotes where you will be responsible for the local transportation cost to the port of shipment.

EXW (EX Work)

In this case, you will be the one responsible for the cost of transporting your goods from the supplier factory to the port of shipment. It’s basically opposite of FOB.

I usually prefer FOB term for my shipment.

Importing your goods from China to the UK through sea freight is far cheaper than air freight.

I remember vividly my first import from China was via air freight through a courier. It was very expensive and that leads me to ask my supplier the cheapest way to ship to the UK from China.

My supplier suggested to me to look for a freight forwarder who can help ship my products to the UK by sea.

While preparing for my next shipment, I found a company called Shippo through google search.

Shippo has been very helpful for my business since I found them. They simplify my shipping process and make it cheaper.

The three factors that determine the cost of your shipping are

• size
• volume (in cubic meters (CBM)
• and weight (KG), of your shipment.

Obviously shipping by air from China through courier like UPS, DHL and FedEx can be quicker. However, you will be saving a lot of money by shipping through sea freight specialist like Shippo.

For people who are just new to selling on Amazon and their product is lightweight. You might consider air freight.

If you want to use the traditional courier, in most cases your supplier will help deal with them in China to get a quote for you.

For sea freight, it is better to find freight forwarder in the UK.

Sea shipping is not right for every product. The general rule of thumb is that if your goods are too small or you need it urgently, the sea shipping will not be right, so consider air freight.

Door to Door Delivery

I must not forget to mention this one.

Door to Door Delivery means that your supplier will help you appoint a freight forwarding company.

Every task involved with shipping will be handled by the appointed freight forwarder.

With Door to Door Delivery, you won’t need to worry about taking the product from warehouse or factory to port or airport.

As well, your supplier in conjunction with the freight forwarder or the courier will take care of all the paperwork and taxes. 

The product will arrive at your door or your chosen location.

Stage 7: Bulk Order

After you have received the sample, satisfy with the quality and agreed on price and shipping term. You can now proceed to place a bulk order.

Obviously you need to ask for a formal quote in writing. This will usually be sent to you via email.

Don’t be scared to haggle. Quality is very important to you so don’t ask for too much discount which will make the supplier compromise on the quality of the sample you’ve seen.

You can get a few cent or pence off the price they quoted you and that can save you a bit of money.

You will usually be required to make payment for the initial deposit which in most cases is 30% of the total cost.

For example, if your product will cost £2,000, you will be required to make a payment of £600 as an initial deposit.

Stage 8: Inspection

There are companies in China that you can appoint to help inspect your products before leaving the factory.

There have been stories of supplier compromising on quality. That is the reason why there are inspection companies in China.

They that can help check that your goods have been produced to the standard you agreed with the supplier.

Personally, I haven’t used any of the inspection companies so am unable to recommend one.

My suppliers have never disappointed me in terms of the quality of the products. For this reason, I have not had any need to use inspection companies for quality check.

Perhaps, it is better to be safe than sorry. If you have a large order, you might consider inspection company service.

Stage 9: Import your goods

Once you have placed bulk order and chosen a freight forwarder or courier. The sea freight forwarder or a courier will deal with your supplier to handle the process of importing your goods.

They will be responsible for importing your goods to the UK.

In my case, I use Shippo for my sea freight and they are efficient and effective.

The freight forwarder will give you the estimated date they expect your goods to arrive in the UK. Sometime the date might change. In that case, they will communicate with you.

Shippo which I use does have tracking on their website that I can use to track the shipment.

Stage 10: Goods Arrival, Custom Duty and Value Added Tax (VAT)

When the goods arrive in the UK, you will get notified by the forwarder.

You then are asked to make payment for the cost of shipping, customs duty, and VAT. All of these will be in one single invoice. The freight forwarder is collecting the Duty and VAT on behalf of HMRC from you.

Because you are importing from China which is outside the EU area, you will need to pay VAT on your goods.

It makes a lot of sense to calculate the Duty and VAT before your goods arrive so you can be well prepared.

Duty is basically calculated using a percentage of your product tariff code. The tariff code depends on the type of product.

Tariff codes are mostly between 2% and 5%, it could be higher but you can check the tariff classification on the UK Government website. As at the time of writing this post, VAT is standard 20%. VAT on Taxable Import = 20% of (goods cost) + (UK Duty) + (Insurance & Shipping). For example, if the cost of your goods is £3,000 with 3% on the tariff code and the shipping cost is £300. Your duty will be 3% of £3,000 which should be £90. VAT will be 20% of £3,000 (Cost to buy your goods) + £90 (UK Duty) + £300 (Shipping Cost & Insurance). Your VAT should be £678. Your Duty + VAT will be around £779 If your business is VAT registered, you will be able to reclaim the VAT back from HMRC.

For most people who are just starting Amazon business, you won’t be able to collect the VAT back. However, you will not be paying VAT to HMRC on each item sold like a business that is VAT registered.

Usually, HMRC will send you a C79 certificate to prove you’ve paid import VAT which you can claim back.

My freight forwarder Shippo has a calculator on their website which you can use.

Stage 11: Send to a fulfilment warehouse

If your aim of importing from China to the UK is to sell on Amazon. You can ask your freight forwarder or courier to send the goods to Amazon fulfilment centre as soon as the goods are cleared from custom.

Usually, you would have created carton and pallet labels from Amazon Seller Account which should be stick on the cartons and pallets if your goods come in pallets.

If you want to merchant fulfil your products, you can ask for the goods to be sent to your chosen address.

I created a YouTube video on how to import from China and sell on Amazon.

You can watch the video below.

How to build a brand

How to find products to sell on Amazon is one of the most common questions new sellers ask.

Not only new sellers ask this question. There are also people who already sell on Amazon who also struggle with finding profitable products to sell on Amazon.

I have been selling physical products on Amazon since the summer of 2017. I thought I should address the issue of the difficulties of sourcing for products in this post.

The business model you adopt will determine your product sourcing method.

There are various models anyone who wants to sell on Amazon or eBay can adopt. You can either do all the business model or do some of them.

Retail Arbitrage

This is when you walk into a retail shop like Tesco or Asda in the UK and buy a product which you can resell on Amazon or eBay.

In this case, you want a product that sells for more money on Amazon than they sell for in the shop.

For example, assuming a particular toy in the shop sells for £8. Let’s say the same product is been sold for £32 on Amazon.

If you buy such product and sell on Amazon or eBay, you should earn a healthy profit after fees are deducted from your sales price.

How to find products through Retail Arbitrage

Discounted and Clearance Products

Finding products through retail arbitrage is one of the simple ways to find products to sell on Amazon or eBay.

After registering to become a seller on Amazon. You will have access to download Amazon Seller App.

You can literally walk into any retail shop and use your Amazon Seller app to scan any product.

When you scan the barcode, you will be able to see these three important things

1) if the product has already been listed on Amazon

2) the price the product is selling for on Amazon

3) Best Seller Rank (BSR) of the product.

The image below shows the important information you will come across when you scan a product with your Amazon Seller App. 

The BSR is what helps you to know how quickly you will be able to sell the product when you list it for sale on Amazon.

And there are also features on Amazon seller app that will help you calculate profit. This will help you to make an informed decision about whether to buy the product to resell or not

Products not on discount

One of the mistakes I have seen a lot of new sellers makes is this. They go for retail arbitrage sourcing and they are only looking for products in the clearance section of the shop.

Actually, I have been able to find products that are not on sale or clearance which I currently sell on Amazon.

The main logic of retail arbitrage is that you are looking for products that you will buy for less than it is been sold for on Amazon.

It doesn’t mean that you can only find the product in the clearance section of a store.

You can deliberately go to any section and scan as many products as possible.

Other Tip

One of the good hacks I have used is searching for a product on amazon seller app instead of scanning.

Using this method will help you find some listings that are hidden to a lot of sellers on Amazon.

Online Arbitrage

This is very similar to retail arbitrage. The only difference is that the exact process in retail arbitrage is done online. Instead of going out to the brick and mortar shop, you go on the retailer websites online and search for deals on their website.

How to find products through Online Arbitrage

Product research tools/ software

What has worked for me in finding products through online arbitrage is the leveraging software.

Sign up for any sourcing software you can find.

 

Your initial strategy should be to take advantage of the trial periods of the sourcing software.

Sign up for one trial at a time.

The thing is this, when you find a product on sourcing software, it will lead you to rabbit holes of product discovery.

After you get the ball rolling you can decide to cancel subscriptions. I know software is expensive. However, they will help you to scale.

Sourcing software and deal sheets will also give you the foundation of product discovery.

I have to admit that personally, I don’t sign up for any software permanently, I am usually in and out of them.

I only have a permanent subscription to only two software. One is a sourcing software which helps me in a great deal with scanning wholesale list and it is called FBA Wizard

The other software I use regularly is Zoho which I use for my accounting.

If you are having difficulty in finding DEALS, sign up to a trial of one of the software, when the trial ends, sign up to another one. There is no way you won’t find at least one deal.

These are the sourcing software I in the arbitrage world which I have used.

✔️ FBA Wizard – product finding software
✔️ Tactical Arbitrage – product finding software
✔️ Source Mogul – product finding software
✔️ FastTRACK FBA – selected product list
✔️ Online Arbitrage Deals – selected product list

Manual Sourcing

Sourcing for a product through the manual method is a very unique way to find products to sell on Amazon.

This method offers a lot of advantages which makes it so worth it.

One of the disadvantages of using tools and software is that a lot of people also use them. This means many people will be finding the same products using the software. If a lot of sellers are finding the same product. This can make competition to be very high when selling those products on Amazon.

With manual sourcing method, you can reduce competition.

Manual sourcing is as simple as searching for deals on retailers websites or just by searching on google.

Go direct to a retailer online shop

For example, if you can go to the clearance section of Argos website. You can easily browse to find deals.

You simply copy the product description of a product and paste it on Amazon. You will easily see how much the product is been sold on Argos and how much it is selling for on Amazon.

You can then use Amazon profit calculator to check if the product will be profitable or not.

The downside of manual sourcing is that it takes a lot of time and you can be there for a lot of hours trying to find deals.

Internet Search Engine (Google, Bing, Yahoo)

You can use specific keywords to search for deals on google. These are keywords that will target a specific product, brand or a specific store.

These are examples

-Tesco 3 for 2 (retailer example)

-Boots 3 for 2 (retailer example)

-Argos 3 for 2 (retailer example)

-Playmobil discounted (brand example)

-Blender deals (product example)

You can do this in a number of ways. The longer you do it the better you are at devising your own way and method to find deals online.

You should not limit yourself to only Google. You can also try other search engines like Bing.

Wholesale and Distributors

A lot of brands and manufacturer usually have distributors or wholesalers across the country who are between them and the retailers.

These distributors will get the products from the manufacturer.

Retailers will then buy from wholesalers or distributors. If you sell online, you are a retailer.

You can buy products from a lot of wholesalers or distributors and sell them on Amazon or eBay.

A lot of wholesalers or distributors will not sell to you if you are not a business. Majority of wholesalers and distributors only want to sell to a business. They often call it Business to Business (B2B).

If you are serious about selling online, it makes sense to register a company. It is not difficult to register a company. If you make a start and it looks like something you really want to do, you can find out information about how to register a company.

Most wholesalers will only allow you to register with them to buy products from them if you have a registered company.

It is not compulsory for your business to be VAT register before you can source from a wholesaler.

But having a company that is VAT register also gives another level of credibility to your business which makes some wholesaler to want to listen to you.

How to find a wholesaler

Finding a wholesaler is one of the challenges people who want to start selling online face.

It took me a very long time to figure this out.

The mistakes most people face is that they are not using the right tactics when finding wholesalers.

Use Internet Search Engine like Google

This might not be the best way to find a wholesaler. But, it is still one of the good ways to find a wholesaler.

Most information we want is online. However, we do not get the right results most of the time because we are not searching the right way or not using the right keywords to search.

For example, if I am looking for a wholesaler, it will not make sense for me to type just the word ‘wholesale’ or ‘wholesaler’ on google.

The word wholesale is too broad and will not likely give me the right result.

What you could do instead is to add a category of product to the word wholesale like one of the below

‘home decor wholesale’

‘home decor wholesaler’

‘wholesale home decor’

‘home decor distributors’

‘home decor suppliers’

‘home decor + wholesale’

You can really be creative and use a lot of different variations and combinations of keywords to search on google. The chances are, all of the above and some other method you adopt will come up with different results on google.

Going further to be a bit more specific might help you to find a wholesaler. You might consider searching for wholesaler or distributor for a specific type of product or a particular brand.

Instead of randomly looking for any wholesaler. You could go on google and look for wholesaler for some specific type of products.

For example, if in my product research, I find out that candle sells very well online. I can try and find a wholesaler or distributor for a candle. My search criteria on google might look like this.

‘candles wholesaler’

‘candles distributor’

‘candles supplier’

‘candles  + wholesaler’

‘candles  + distributor’

‘candles  + supplier’

And you can even be a lot more specific to search for wholesaler or distributor of a specific brand. So in the example above, instead of just candles, you can put the name of a brand. Yankee Candle is a very big brand name in candle selling. You might have a search like this

‘Yankee candles wholesaler’

‘Yankee candles distributor’

You can just be clever and creative with your search keywords and hopefully, you might be able to find wholesalers. I have been able to find a lot of wholesalers using these methods.

One very good tip is that, don’t stop on page one or page two when searching on google.

Another tip is to explore other search engines. Google is by far the largest search engine but we often forget there are other search engines like Microsoft Bing. You might want to also do some searches on Bing.

If you are searching for a particular product or brand which are likely to have a distributor or wholesaler outside your country. You might want to change your location on a search engine.

For example, if I am looking for a distributor for a brand and I know the home of that brand is Germany. I would try some searches with Germany as my location on google. In your browser settings on google, you can restrict Google to let the result of your searches come from only a particular country you choose.

Tradeshow

We all automatically assume that we can find every information we want online. As great as the internet is, not all information is online.

You will be surprised there are a lot of wholesaler and distributors who still do not have a website. And some of them who have a website do not know about Google Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). So, their websites will not easily be found on google.

In fact, the best way to find wholesalers is through the Tradeshows. There are Tradeshows for various industries.

You can find Tradeshows for beauty and cosmetics, trade shows for homes and gardens. And there are Tradeshows that cover a wide variety of sectors.

Even in this age of the internet, speaking to real people and building relationships is a great way to do business.

When you attend Tradeshows you will be able to speak to businesses in person and you might be able to find a wholesaler for a lot of very niche products.

One of the big Tradeshows in the UK is the one that usually takes place in the Spring at the NEC in Birmingham.

It’s great to attend Tradeshow in person if you can make up the time. But you don’t have to attend to have access to the lists of companies that will be at the Tradeshow.

If you register for the Tradeshow online. They will send you a brochure or leaflet which will have lists of companies that will attend the show, you can then visit the websites of those companies and see if you can register with them to source products from them.

Advertisements

Pay attention to advertisements you see around when you are out and about. There are wholesalers or distributors who have their own delivery networks. Some of them have a lot of trucks and lorries which they use to move goods around.

It is very easy to spot the names of distributor or wholesaler on a vehicle when you are outside home.

I am not saying you should stand by the motorway and looking for a lorry with a distributor name on them. I am just saying you should be observant, you will never know, you might find a wholesaler by consciously paying attention to delivery lorries and vans.

I have managed to find a wholesaler through this method.

There are also magazines which are specifically for a particular industry or sector. Inside some magazines, if you look very well, some distributor does advertise in trade magazines.

Private Label

It is now easier than ever to build a brand in a low-risk way.

Anyone can create their own eCommerce website and sell a product they create on that website. The usual problem is getting customers to your own website for them to buy your products.

One of the easiest ways to find customers that will buy your product is to use established marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. These platforms have been existing for a long time.

they have build trust with customers. In fact, customers already have their payment details registered on Amazon for convenience click and buy.

Starting your brand on Amazon might be a low-risk way to gain traction.

How to find a product to private label

Product Research Tool

It can be very challenging brainstorming ideas for products to private label.

Softwares are now used in various areas of our life.

One of the benefits software and tools offer is that they help reduce the time we spend on tasks.

They help to simplify our life. As well, they help remove the guesswork from our decision-making process and help us make an informed and data-driven decision.

You can set a lot of criteria in tools and they will search amazon product catalogue and brings you results based on the criteria you set.

From the result, you get you will then be able to filter and select potential products you can private label.

There is a lot of software I have used which have been very helpful.

• Jungle scout 
• ViralLaunch
• Hellium10

Out of the three listed above. Jungle Scout is the one I have personally used which has helped me to find products to sell on Amazon.

They are the first product research tool for finding profitable products to sell on Amazon.

If you are interested in using Jungle Scout to find a product to private label. Please click on the link to go to Jungle Scout website.

Amazon Best Sellers List

If you have a lot of time in your hands, you can go through the list of Amazon Best Sellers products.

Amazon regularly creates lists of products that sell very fast on its platform. Looking at this list will give you an idea of the types of products that sell well.

Selling on Amazon is now very competitive. One of the ways to beat the competition is to differentiate your own product.

While it might be useful to use Amazon best sellers list to get an idea of a product that sells well.

What will not be good is to exactly copy a product on the bestseller list.

What might be useful to do is to check the existing products customer product reviews and feedbacks. If there are some particular problems that are mentioned in the customer’s feedback.

You can try and address those problems in your own product when you approach a manufacturer that will produce the product.

When using Amazon bestseller list. It could be useful to go deep down in the subcategories.

There will be a lot of people looking at the same best sellers list. A lot of people are lazy in their product research and they only stay at the surface, they don’t go deep.

If you are able to go deep, you will be able to find what others are not finding.

Passion and Hobby

If you are passionate about something, there is a good chance there will be a lot of other people in your country or the world who are also passionate about that same thing.

Let’s say you like fishing. There will be a lot of people out there who love fishing.

You can brainstorm ideas of products that people who are involved with fishing cannot do without. There will be a lot of products which people who have fishing as their hobby requires.

Get a pen and paper and start writing. Create some list and check those products on your list for demands on Amazon.

One word of caution about this method of finding a product is this. If there is no demand for the product list you have, there is no point in wasting your time creating the product.

A big factor in success in eCommerce is that whatever you are selling you must check that it is a product customers are looking for.

Do not be emotional about any product.

Don’t choose a product because you like it and get attached to it emotionally. Because you like it does not mean customers will pay for it.

Brainstorm Idea from your house

You will not believe there are a lot of product ideas in your house.

There was an exercise I did last year which helped me to find a product.

I asked my kids to get a pen and paper. I asked them to go everywhere in the house and write down everything they could see.

You can do this exercise also. Go into every room and write as many things as you can see.

Go to the kitchen, check the cupboards. Check your bathrooms, your bedrooms.

You are likely to come up with a lot of products which will fall in different categories.

You can then filter down trim the list down. The next stage will be to check your final lists of products idea on Amazon for demands.

Example of products you can come up with which might lead you to another product are

-Bedroom: table lamp, lunch box

-Bathroom: hand cream, vanity mirror, kids bathroom toys

-Kitchen: herbs, coffee, food storage container

-Living room: coffee table, photo frame, cushion cover

The above are just examples and I am not saying you should private label or not to private label these products.

If you can have some creative thinking, there are a lot of products you can private label.

Opportunities are limitless.

Curiosity

My final point here is all about curiosity.

Intentionally watch out for product ideas when you see an advert on TV or in a magazine. Just be conscious of your environment and problems that need to be solved.

There are problems all around us which the solution is a product someone will produce. You might be the one to improve already existing products.

Final thought

Finding a product to sell on Amazon requires a lot of work and it is a continuous process.

For anyone who has a business selling on Amazon, you can not stop finding products.

One of the reasons why you can not stop is that there is competition. There are a lot of other sellers who are working hard on new products.

As well, once you stop researching for products, your business will not be making progress.

All the various methods outlined above for finding products are methods I have personally used.

There are are a lot of other methods which you will come across. You just need to do things differently sometime and device your own method.

What are the most profitable side hustles you ask? 

Before going further to explore side hustle business ideas. Let’s look at the reasons why it is important for everyone to have a business on the side. 

Prices of things keep going higher and higher and it becomes very easy for your expenses to outweigh your income.

This is the reason why a lot of people ask, what are the most profitable side hustles?

According to the research by Henley Business School, 1 in 4 Brits are running at least one business project alongside their full-time job, and this is predicted to rise significantly by 2030

The world is becoming more and more demanding. This is why a lot of people will be looking towards a side hustle in 2020.

Side hustles are not necessarily a get rich quick scheme but a means to balance your earnings and help you live a more financially healthy life.

This is why I have packaged 101 side hustle ideas just for you in 2020. You are spoilt for choice really.

Sell online

1. Handcrafts

Gifting a handmade card or accessory to our loved ones will always be special when compared to getting artificial ones.

You can actually earn good money by doing handcrafts and selling them. You can easily sell on Etsy or Amazon Handmade.

2. Become a Hosting Reseller

A lot of hosting companies have reseller programs where you can get their hosting plans at a cheap price and sell for more.

This will be a good side hustle to start if you are knowledgeable about this.

3. Sell books

If you have lots of books which you don’t need anymore, then you can actually sell or rent them to people and make money.

The best platform to leverage for selling books online is Amazon.

Obviously there are a lot of other platforms like eBay and others. However, most of the other marketplace do not have the amount of traffics Amazon have.

I wrote a very detailed article on how to start selling books on Amazon. I will recommend you read that article if you are interested in selling books online.

4. Sell used clothes

Rather than discarding clothes you no longer wear or giving them out, if it’s in good condition, you can actually sell them instead.

You can sell used clothes on sites like Vinted and eBay. You can also sell used cloths on Facebook Marketplace.

If you look well, you can source good used clothes from charity shops, car boot sales and church sales. make sure you choose the ones in good condition and you can resell the cloths.

5. Sell items on eBay

You can sell items on eBay and earn money from them. Selling on eBay can help you earn additional income.

6. Sell items on Amazon

For over two years selling physical products on Amazon has been one of my side hustles.

You can earn good money selling on Amazon. Its very simple to do but it is not easy. It requires commitment, perseverance and consistency. You can register to become a seller on Amazon.

I wrote an article on how selling on Amazon works. Click here to read the article.

7. Sell electronics

Do you have electronic gadgets you aren’t using at the moment?

Then you can make money by selling them online. You can sell your electronics on sites like gazelle.

8. Sell Art

Make some beautiful paintings and sell them on sites like ArtPlode, Amazon and ArtFinder.

There are lots of art lovers out there and you can make quite a good amount from this.

9. Sell on Etsy

Maybe you have some knowledge about handcrafts.

Etsy is a platform where you can easily showcase and sell goods like this.

Some of the best selling goods on Etsy are home décor, candles, jewellery, knit hats, and more.

10. Sell Online Workshops/Courses

Sometimes, we overlook our existing skills when looking for a side hustle. You can turn your knowledge in your field or other valuable areas into a side hustle by teaching others. You can easily sell online courses or workshops.

11. Sell Ad Space On Your Car

This is a very convenient side hustle for you in 2020.

If you live in a populated area or a big city and spend time driving, you can sell advertisement space on your vehicle.

Site like CarQuids in the UK will help you get clients. In the US there are agencies like Wrapify, Carvertise.

12. Start Dropshipping

You can become a dropshipper.

As a dropshipper, you are into the buying and selling trade except you do not take inventory and neither do you handle the shipping of your products.

You can find companies that allow dropshipping. You can list products on Amazon and eBay.

When customers purchase, you can then buy the products from your dropshipping companies and ship them to the customers. 

13. Start an E-commerce Business

You can choose to start an e-commerce store as a side hustle.

All you need to do is figure out the product you want to sell. Platforms like Amazon, Facebook Marketplace, Shopify and WooCommerce are making starting an e-commerce business easy.

14. Refurbish and Resell Used Furniture

With a little bit of carpentry knowledge, you can start a reselling and refurbishing business.

All you need to do is purchase used furniture from thrift stores and improve the condition.

It is also possible to get gently used furniture as well. These ones don’t need refurbishing and you can resell immediately.

15. Sell Unwanted Products on Facebook Marketplace

A lot of people still believe Facebook is limited to just meeting people and catching up on old times.

But Facebook is now so much more. I have been able to sell a lot of products on Facebook.

One of the benefits of selling on Facebook is that you are not going to pay any fees on the sales you make.

Consulting, Administrative, Bookkeeping

16. Work as freelancer

There are lots of freelancing sites available out there. You should join one if you have a digital skill you feel you can leverage on. This helps you to earn while working from any place and time.

17. Work as data entry

If you are good at typing, then you can work as a data entry. This will let you earn money based on the work which you can do. 

18. Prepare Tax Returns

Do you know a thing or two about filing taxes? You can leverage this skill during the tax filing season. Companies even hire extra tax prep so they can keep up with demands.

19. Book narrator

There are a lot of people who love narrating books. You can visit sites like Amazon ACX to narrate a book, upload it and earn money.

 

20. Proofreader

Do you have a good understanding of English and its usage? And you enjoy reading? You can become a proofreader and make some handy cash. Visit online sites like Fiverr and freelance as a proofreader and make money out of it.

21. Post ads

By posting ads online you can earn a pretty good amount in your pocket. Use sites like craigslist and earn easy money. You can also become a social media ad manager by posting ads for people.

22. Consulting service

Are you knowledgeable and experienced in a particular field? You can leverage on your knowledge by becoming a consultant in that field.

23. Resume writing

Do you have sound knowledge in resume/CV writing? Then you can use this skill of yours to earn money by editing and writing resumes. You are at an advantage here if your regular job is an HR or hiring manager.

24. Virtual assistant

If you are someone who loves managing teams and projects then you can be a virtual assistant for startups. This can actually help make your dream about managing come true without any degree. You can use websites like Upwork, People Per Hour and Fiverr to advertise your service.

25. Interview transcribing

There are a lot of online sites like Sterling and Transcribe Anywhere which requires transcribers. You can take up the work and be a transcriber in your free time. This helps you to make good money while working from anywhere with flexible times.

Household Help Side Hustles

26. Laundry Business

There are areas that are far from laundry centres and it’s rare to see in-home washer and dryers. You can start a laundry service as a side hustle in such areas.

27. Pack and Pick Up People’s Trash

While it’s not a very glamorous side hustle, you can get paid to keep the environment clean and trash free.

28. Assemble Amazon Furniture

It would surprise you how lazy people get when it comes to reading a user manual and putting furniture together. You can get paid for helping people assemble their furniture.

29. Mow lawns

This is an activity most people carry out themselves but you’d be surprised that some people would rather not do it. You can simply advertise yourself by printing out fliers and dropping in people’s mailboxes.

30. Work as a handyman

Lend your time to people by helping them with minor tasks. A handyman’s job isn’t limited and there will always be things for you to do. This can make you extra money.

31. Help your peers

Help your friends in assignments and charge money from them. This lets you add handy cash in your pocket.

32. Alteration stand

If you are very good at sewing then you can earn money by stitching dresses and altering dresses too.

33. Become an Event Planner

Event planners are always in demand. You can start planning weddings, corporate functions, family get-togethers, birthday parties and the likes.

34. Gardener

If you are a nature lover, being a gardener would be a perfect side hustle for you as you will enjoy it and still make money.

35. Start a House Painting Business

This is a good side business for you if you have an eye for quality paint and colour. You can start out on your own at first then you can hire more hands as your business grows.

Rental Out Your Space

36. Rent your house

Sharing an empty room or space in your house would be a great way to earn money.

You get to make new friends, meet new people and earn money at the same time. Airbnb has grown in popularity and more trustworthy in recent time.

You can rent out your room or house through Airbnb. If you don’t mind having a lodger, you can rent your room for a long term or temporarily.

37. Rent out Your Storage Space

You’d be surprised by how many people are looking for a room or garage as small as your storage space. You can rent out your garage or parking space through websites like StashBee.

Health and Fitness Side Hustles

38. Become a Personal Trainer

If you are fit and like working out, you can leverage this hobby by becoming a personal trainer. You can choose to charge daily, hourly, or monthly.

39. Exercise classes

For bodybuilders and fitness lovers, you can actually earn money by teaching people yoga and exercises. This helps you make extra money while continuing your daily routine.

Writing Side Hustles

40. Review writer

Write reviews for apps and movies and you can earn handsome money. Sites like Amazon Vine, Capterra, G2 Crowd, Kirkus Reviews and online book clubs can help you.

41. Become an Author

If you love writing short stories, and also books then you can write an eBook and earn very good money by selling it. You can even sell your services by writing for people.

Coaching and Guidance

42. Become a Life Coach

Humans are generally more experienced than one another irrespective of what age bracket they fall in. You shouldn’t look past your experience when trying to find a side hustle in 2020.

You can leverage on your real-life experiences by becoming a life coach and helping clients in need of support and guidance.

 

Design, Creative and Decoration Side Hustle

43. Sell Digital Designs

If you can get creative and are comfortable designing, you can make money from selling digital designs on sites like Etsy. Some digital designs you can sell are resume designs, holiday card templates, postcard templates or printable art.

44. Become a photographer

You can actually be a paid photographer for social functions or parties which will help you earn money and also help follow your passion.

45. Freelance as a Graphics Designer

A graphics designer is always in demand and is a credible side hustle. You can either enlist as a freelancer on sites like Upwork and Fiverr or build a personal portfolio website to show off your skills.

46. Design T-shirts

So you take cool pictures or you are good at designing, you can get your pictures or designs printed on T-shirts to sell. You don’t even have to print in bulk, you can print on order.

47. Edit Videos

Some of us edit videos to post on social media all the time. And to be frank, most of us underrate our video editing skills.

If you are adept at using digital editing software, video editing is definitely a side hustle for you. You can either choose to sell your services locally or register on freelance websites like Fiverr.

48. Launch a Calligraphy Business

Who’d have thought a pretty handwriting can come in handy as a credible side hustle? You can get some tips of how to start in this article.

49. Become a Photo editor

If you are good at photo editing then you can earn money by editing photos from home.

50. Work as a Radio Jockey (RJ)

Being a RJ is a sassy job and if you are one of those who love entertaining people by talking then you can earn awesome pay being one.

51. Become a DJ

You can put that good music taste and eye for the latest music hit to use by becoming a DJ. To think all you’ll need is a laptop and good speakers.

52. Become a Make-Up Artist

So you feel you are quite adept in the art of doing makeup? Why don’t you profit from it by doing it for people before weddings, birthdays, conferences and other events?

53. Party Decorator

Most parties especially kids party takes place mostly during the weekend. If you have spare time during the weekend, this can be a good side hustle. I have been to kids birthday parties with my kids and seen lovely decorations.

Some of the room and table decorations are done by someone that part host hired. If you love decoration, you can advertise your service to friends and online and you can be up and running.

Food, Cooking and Grocery Side Hustle

54. Open a Food Stand

Are you a good cook? Or better yet, can you make tasty local meals? Then why not open a food stand at the park or a busy street and sell your homemade meals?

55. Sell homemade cookies

Food is loved by everyone and this business would be a hit if you are actually a food lover and especially a better chef. Sell homemade cookies to people and you can make good money out of this. You can even sell at your place of work.

56. Teach a Cooking Class

Why not leverage that cooking skill and teach people how to cook? You can charge as little as £10 a person.

57. Part-timer in bakery/cafe

Work part-time in a bakery or a café and earn money while doing this.

58. Sell Handmade Soaps

You can learn soap making online, buy a soap making kit and create sweet-scented soaps to sell.

59. Chef

For all the awesome chef’s out there, you can work as a part-time employee in a restaurant and make money while doing your favourite work.

60. Sell Cakes

If you love baking, you can turn your passion for baking to side hustle or business idea.

Let your friends and family know that you bake cakes. Once you do it for someone and they like it, they will tell other people.

With social media, you can post the photos on Instagram or other platforms and before you know it you will begin to receive orders.

Cleaning Side Hustles

61. Cleaning Business

Start a cleaning business with a group of friends. Earning money while working with friends would be fun actually. You can choose to charge hourly or per project.

Another cool part is that you don’t need much to get it started. If you like cleaning you will enjoy this side hustle. It is easier than never to advertise your service.

If you check on Facebook, you will find groups in your local area where you can advertise your service. There are people who just need help to clean their house and they are happy to pay someone to do the work for them.

62. Clean Windows

Believe it or not, but most people will rather pay someone else to clean their windows than actually do it themselves.

If you’ve noticed a few dirty windows in your area, you can put up signs and flyers to advertise your services.

Travel Side Hustle

63. Become a Travel Agent

If you are knowledgeable about the best vacation spots and finding the best travel deals, this can be a really fun side hustle for you in 2020. You can even handle all your affairs from your bed.

64. Travel Guide

This work actually lets you explore new places and meet a lot of people. Who doesn’t love travelling and exploring places? You can be a travel guide and earn money while helping tourists enjoy their vacation.

Teaching and Training Side Hustles

65. Become a Student Tutor

If you have a particular subject you are quite good at, you can start tutoring it as a side hustle. With a flier here and there, you should be able to get customers consistently.

66. Teach English online

If you are a fluent English speaker and understand the basics, you can help people improve their English-speaking skills in your free time. This helps you to make that extra cash too.

67. Teach Music

You can start classes in your free time and teach people music. You can also teach people how to play various musical instruments. This will be an interesting side job for music lovers.

68. Online Tutor

Work as a tutor on sites like Chegg and earn money from it. People who love teaching can choose this as a side job and make money.

69. Teach Art

You can teach kids and people to draw and paint. This is such a refreshing task which can keep you creative while earning money.

Care Side Hustles

70. Take Care of the Elderly

No, you do not necessarily need a nursing degree to work with the elderly. If you are not actively taking care of them, you can still provide useful services like grocery shopping or house cleaning.

71. Become a House Sitter

House-sitting can be fun. All you have to do is live and care for the house until its rightful owner gets back. Depending on how many clients you have or the type of contract you get, you can even save money on your own rent.

72. Babysitting

Babies are the most adorable beings in this world. So, for all those people who love and adore babies, you can make it a hustle and take care of babies.

Shopping Side Hustles

73. Mystery Shopping

If you enjoy shopping, this is for you. Shopping can be a fun side hustle idea for you.

A lot of people are making a living through mystery shopping. If you are looking for a side hustle idea, this is the one for you to consider.

If you want more details about mystery shopping, the wonderful people of Money Saving Expert have a lot of information on their member’s forum. You can find the information by clicking here.

74. Become a Personal Shopper

This is another option shopping side hustle idea for you. With a good fashion sense, you can slowly build a client base and help people fulfil their shopping lists and even give fashion advice.

Marketing and Website Testing Side Hustles

75. Become an Affiliate Marketer

Affiliate marketing is one of the most common side hustle business out there. Becoming an affiliate marketer is easy and most people go about this through blogging.

76. Become a Brand Ambassador

You can easily become a brand ambassador with a good social media following. You can also get hired offline to spread awareness about a company’s products and services. You are also sometimes asked to hand out free samples.

77. Website Testing

You surf the internet every day. Why not then do it for money? With sites like User Testing, you can earn about some cash through surfing websites and give your feedback. Some other websites for this type of side hustles are uTest, TestingTime, Loop11.

78. Online Surveys

Carrying out surveys is an easy way to make that extra cash online. For every survey you complete, Pinecone Research will pay you £3. If you complete a lot of surveys, the money can quickly add up.

79. Get paid to complete tasks online

You are not just limited to surveys to earn extra cash online,  sometimes you can complete some random task online and get paid. A website like 20cogs will let you earn money by completing various tasks.

You do not have to do all the tasks, you can ask for another task if the task they gave you is not the one you like. I have tried 20cogs. I must warn you that some of the tasks involve trialling betting websites. I personally do not support betting. You can reject any of the tasks and you will be giving another task.

Some of the tasks will enable you to get some items free. I remember i got some Graze products free in the post.

Driving and Delivery and Car Care Side Hustles

80. Deliver For Uber Eats

Driving around delivering food for home delivery food companies through Uber Eats is a cool side hustle. And there is the advantage of having a flexible schedule.

81. Delivery service

Earn money by delivery food to people. There are lots of companies where you can get a delivery job and earn awesome pay. If you sign up with Amazon Flex, you can earn up to £15 an hour. Amazon Flex is not in every town and city so it worth checking if they are in your area by visiting their website.

82. Become A Lyft/Uber Driver

The amount you can genuinely make with this side hustle depends on the hours you can dedicate to it. UK citizens may not have the Uber or Lyft options but they have Bolt, Kapten, Xooox, Wheely and the likes as credible alternatives.

83. Get a Part-Time Delivery Job

During the festive seasons, companies like UPS and FedEx are known to hire extra help to keep up with demands. You can take advantage of this.

84. Start driving classes

Yes, you can actually make money from driving lessons. If you own a car then you can help people learn how to dress while making good cash.

85. Open a Car Wash

No, you are not opening a conventional car wash with all the machine and equipment. You can start a weekly car wash every weekend. You can find a busy spot like a grocery store and promise customers to have their cars washed before they are ready to leave.

86. Rent your vehicle

If you have a bike or car and you are not going to use it for some time. Then you can actually rent it and make money from it.

87. Create a Moving Company

Do you have a truck just lying around somewhere? Or can you afford one? Starting a moving company can become profitable in the long run after building up a good reputation and rapport with clients.

Content Creation and Social Media Side Hustles

88. Start a Youtube Channel

You can share knowledge, fun activities and even your hobby as a YouTuber. You simply need to create videos. This is quite a good way to earn money.

89. Start a Blog

You can become a successful blogger if you focus on a niche you are passionate about. And you can start a blog with little to no capital thanks to platforms like WordPress and BlogSpot. There are several ways to monetise your blog. Some of them include affiliate marketing, sponsored ads, AdSense, and selling courses.

90. Monetise Your Instagram and Twitter Accounts

If you have a following of 10k and above, create very engaging contents, and get a lot of interactions with your posts, you can monetise your account. You can get paid by promoting your favourite brands and items.

91. Manage social media pages

You can help people manage their social media pages and earn money from it. You will help them post, reply to comments and sometimes reply messages. But this depends on what your agreement is.

92. Do vlogs

Do vlogs by visiting places, exploring food, culture and a lot of more exciting things and post them online. This will let you make money while letting other people enjoy those videos. How you make money however depends on how popular your Vlog gets as you can either make money through sponsored ads or monetising your channel like Youtube.

93. Content writer

Write articles from all niches and make some good money in your hands. There are a lot of online sites like Fiverr, Truelancer and Upwork where you can get a lot of writing work.

94. App creator

Are you a developer? You have sound knowledge of coding? Then you can create apps for people and earn money.

Pet side hustles

95. Become a Pet Groomer

Do you like pets? Can you teach them a few tricks and instruction? Then you can make pet grooming a side hustle.

96. Become a Dog Walker

There are dog owners who don’t have the time to take their dogs out for a walk. If you are good with pets and enjoy a stroll around the park, you can leverage this by pitching dog walking as a side hustle service.

97. Pet sitting

Earn money while taking care of cute puppies, cats are an awesome thing to do especially if you are an animal lover.

Other Side Hustles

98. Petrol Station Attendant

If you are a student looking for a part-time job this would be a good work.

99. Library assistant

Working as an assistant in the library is a great and exciting job to do. You can come across lots of exciting books and this will also help improve your knowledge while also making money.

100. Download apps

Did you know that there are sites that will pay you to money to download, use and test apps? An example is Feature Points. According to Feature Points, you can make money and earn rewards on your phone by trying free apps, completing surveys, shopping online, and more.

101. Podcasting

There are still opportunities to start a successful podcast.

It costs almost to nothing to start a podcast. You can easily start on the side, if you are consistent you will be surprised how quickly you can build followers.

To be successful in podcasting, It is important you niche down and be different.

 

In this article, I am focusing on Amazon FBA for beginners.

Amazon provides great opportunities for ordinary people to make money through their Amazon FBA program. I am going to give you all the information you need to get started.

My amazon experience started in the summer of 2017 and I am still hanging there and learning and generating some additional income.

This article is based on some of the valuable lessons I have learned selling on Amazon platforms across the world.

Let me just drop some points below which summarises some of the lessons I have learnt. Just like any side hustle, there will be a lot more than can be covered in a single post.

Fulfilled by Amazon

This is what I love about Amazon and what makes it different from eBay (I also sell on eBay). With Amazon FBA, all you need to do is to send all your products to Amazon fulfilment centre, Amazon will then take over the rest

When a customer buys one of your products, you will not need to do anything

Let me use one of my products as an example

300 units were shipped from China to the Amazon Fulfilment Centre

Whenever a customer buys the product, I don’t need to do anything, it will be the responsibility of Amazon to send the product to the customer from their warehouse (Fulfilment Centre)

This is a game-changer, unlike the Merchant Fulfilled (also available for sellers on Amazon) where you will have to visit the post office or courier drop off centre multiple times to ship products to customers

Fulfilled by Amazon is a great example of leveraging. It’s not a free service, you will pay fees for this service but it worth it

Amazon will pick, pack and ship your products to the customer at some cost to you.

4 Major Business Models on Amazon

On Amazon there is 4 major business model, you can focus on just one or you can do all

Retail Arbitrage

You pick up products from normal shops or supermarket, sell the same product for higher that you bought it for after Amazon deduct their fees

You keep the remaining and this is your profit. Do over and over and you can earn good money

Online Arbitrage

This is similar to retail arbitrage above. The only difference is that for online arbitrage, you will need to buy the products online

Wholesale

You find wholesaler or distributors, buy few or bulk and sell on Amazon

Again make sure you buy at a low price and sell for higher on Amazon. Buy low and sell high, it’s as simple as that. It’s simple but not easy

Private Label

This is the one I love the most. It require a lot of work at the beginning because you have to research good products that sell well, sometimes you have to design the product

You will find a manufacturer or supplier, mostly from China but you can find a manufacturer in any country including here in the UK

These are my few points based on my experience of selling on Amazon

Lessons Learnt selling on Amazon

1. Amazon FBA is not for everyone – When you test it out you will know straight away if its what you can cope with or just pass.

2. Quality – Ensure your product is high quality if you do private level

3. It takes time to succeed – Anything that will worthwhile will take time to master. There is no magic formula. There are a lot of people online making it look as if you can just throw product on Amazon and you will become a millionaire. It will take time and work to make it work.

4. Feed the Beast – Amazon is the beast, if you don’t feed it, the money will not flow. Once you stop sending products to Amazon fulfilment centre, your sales will drop or stop because you will not have products to sell. It is not a set and forgets business.

5. Product research is key – Without the right product that customers are looking for, it will be a waste of time to sell on Amazon. Finding the right product is crucial to success.

6. Amazon fees – To sell on Amazon you will pay fees. They have an online calculator to let you know the fees.

7. Start Small – Starting small is very important. It reduces risk. Test, test and test.

8. Manage your expectation – There is nothing wrong in having a high expectation. However, I have seen people have too high expectation about how much money they can make and suddenly get overwhelmed when things are not happening as quickly as they expect.

9. Think long term – after testing phase if you prefer to test it out first, it is important to think long term and stay consistent. Like anything you do in life, you need to be consistent in order to succeed.

10. Remove emotion from decision making – If the maths is not right, don’t waste your time sourcing a product. Business is about profit, any business that can not make a profit will go under, it is as simple as that. Because you are passionate about a particular product don’t mean customers will pay for it.

11. Page 1 – This is where the magic happens because most customers don’t look beyond page 1. To get to page one for any specific keywords, the major factor is sales volume. There are other factors like how long the product has been on Amazon and how to optimise the listing is.

12. Amazon SEO – Just like you see it in blogging, there is also Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) on Amazon. Amazon like Google is also a search engine.

Challenges of selling on Amazon

1. Category restrictions – When you are new, you will not be allowed to sell in all categories straight away. When you meet the requirements, you can sell in most categories.

2. Returns – Just the way you buy things and return because you change your mind. Customers will do the same and its part of the selling universe.

3. You don’t own the customers – It is important to know that the customers you are serving are not your customers. They are amazon customers.

4. Suspension – It’s like a comparison between blogging and Youtube. A blog is more or less your property but YouTube can kick you out if they want. Also, Amazon can suspend your account if you go against their terms and conditions. Don’t get scared, you won’t be suspended as long as you do things in the right way.

5. Bad reviews – Some customers are just not kind. Even if you have a high-quality product. You can’t satisfy all customers. But, customers are always right.

Final Thought

To succeed on Amazon, you need to work very hard, consistent, and think creatively. I have another article  I wrote about how to start selling books on Amazon.

Selling books is a low-risk way to start selling on Amazon. You might want to read that article by clicking here.