We’ve all seen these videos on how you can get paid up to $100 an hour taking surveys or watching videos. Or, with minimal investment or time commitment, you can start a dropshipping business selling t-shirts and coffee mugs and turn that into a full-time business within just a few months. Or, if you just pay for and download this easy to follow course, you’ll be on your way to riches! What they don’t tell you is that you will likely only get paid pennies per survey completion. Or that there are thousands upon thousands of people and businesses already dropshipping mugs and t-shirts on eCommerce marketplaces, making it extremely difficult for any newcomer to succeed.
Unfortunately the web is full of people promoting what they claim to be lucrative opportunities from side hustles, or jobs that pay $50 an hour with little to no skill needed. You’ll find these people on YouTube and other platforms that offer any sort of revenue sharing opportunity. In some cases, these side hustle promoters are trying to generate video views with a clickbait headline and overinflated promises in order to generate more revenue for themselves. Some are getting paid to promote certain products because they have an affiliate agreement with the company that owns the product. In other words, they get a small percentage of any sale that comes through their link. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with affiliate marketing, as long as the relationship is properly disclosed and expectations are met with regard to the product or service being offered.
While not all of these side hustle get rich quick videos are clickbait, a good portion are. If the headline sounds too good to be true, then it most likely is. Think about it, if it’s such an easy way to make money, why is the video host telling you about it and not keeping it all to him or herself?
Even if someone is telling you about a legitimate easy side hustle that pays well because it’s in high-demand, it’s not going to be in high-demand by the time you get around to watching the video because 50,000 other people looking for side hustles saw it before you. It’s like the California Gold Rush. Aside from the first few people who staked their claim, the only people who got rich were the merchants. In this case, the merchants are the people doing the promoting on the video.
Unless you are extremely lucky, there is no super easy and quick way to make a ton of money from a side hustle, especially the ones that promise you can do everything right from your computer. A survey conducted by Zippia found that the average side hustle brings in $483 a month. Men, on average, bring in $596 a month, while women bring in $378 a month. While helpful as a secondary source of income, you’re not likely to get rich.
So if you see a side hustle video promising that you can make $500 a day or even $1,000 a day without any experience or special skills needed, look up some of the online reviews of what’s being promoted and make an informed decision before investing any time or money.
