With worldwide searches for ‘side hustles' rising 2,850% since records began, online experts have shared proven methods to earn extra income that can pay your mortgage.
Digital marketing experts Authority Hacker analysed Google Trends data to reveal how much the interest in side hustles has grown since October 2004. Global searches for 'side hustles' have increased by 2,850% over the last 19 years, with searches hitting an all-time high in January 2023.
With more and more people searching for the perfect side hustle to bring in some extra money, the company has revealed a sure-fire way to make an extra £500 a month.
Their step-by-step approach outlines how to build a profitable blog from the ground up, including buying a domain name, publishing your first article, how to generate free visitors to your website, and how to monetise your audience once you have enough readers.
"Building an authority website can be one of the best ways to address the cost-of-living crisis and generate regular, monthly revenue."
Says Mark Webster, Co-Founder of Authority Hacker.
"Although you do need to put in a lot of work upfront, and wait a few months until the website starts growing, the rewards of making money with a website that you've built, is satisfying.
"Building blogs and websites that generate free online traffic from Google with the aim of making money from ads and affiliate commissions has never been easier than in 2023.
"The idea is to write about topics that people are searching for on Google, to generate free traffic from Google searches. Then, you place ads on your website, and you will get paid for showing the ads to your visitors. The good thing about this is that money generation is all automated, once you figure out the traffic."
Below are the five steps that Authority Hacker outlines, in order to achieve the above:
Step 1: Identify your passion
Identify your passion, or a topic that you are super excited about. Remember, you will have to research and write about the topic in the coming months.
For example, if you like pets, you might consider starting a pet information blog.
If you are a parent, you might find it intriguing to start writing about parenting tips and help other people with the problems that you have also experienced.
Or, if you are a gardening person, starting a gardening tips blog can also be very lucrative.
Once you are certain and excited about your chosen topic, it's time to build the site.
Step 2: Buy a domain name
In order to have a website, you'll first need a domain name.
Simply head to GoDaddy, 123Reg, or Google domains, and buy a domain name that is available.
Step 3: Build the website
Here are the steps to build a website:
You will need a hosting service in order to set up your website.
Use services such as GoDaddy, Hostinger, Siteground, in order to host your domain name under the form of a website.
WordPress is a free content management system that allows you to publish your content on the website. You can install it with a few clicks on most hosting service providers.
Initially, you should write 4-5 articles per week. You will have to choose the titles wisely, and target keywords and topics that people are Googling. You can use tools such as Ubersuggest, SEMrush or Ahrefs, to see what people are searching in your industry, and get great article ideas.
Cover all topics related to your niche. For example, if you write about dogs, you should cover all topics related to dogs.
Step 4: Market your website
In order for your articles to rank on Google and generate free traffic, you will need other websites to talk about your content and link back to you.
Build relationships with other bloggers, comment on their posts, and start building friendships with other peers in your industry.
You can also use services such as HARO or Featured.com, in order to gain coverage and links in mainstream news websites, by simply sharing tips and commentary on matters related to your niche.
In the first six months, aim to get 2-3 new placements and links per week to your website.
This will signal Google that your website and content is worthy of being talked about, and you will rank higher and higher when people are searching for keywords related to your articles.
Step 5: Monetise your website
If you take relentless action on the above steps, especially on content creation and link building, your website will start to generate a healthy amount of traffic from Google.
Once you hit the 1,000 daily users - this can take from six to ten months - it is time to make money with your site.
The two best methods of making money with a site are adverts, and affiliate revenue.
The most popular ad network is Google AdSense. You simply paste a code in your website, and Google will place ads automatically throughout your content. It requires zero involvement from your end, and Google will broker the relationship with advertisers for you.
You can also try out other ads services such as Ezoic, Media Vine, Clickio, AdThrive, Freestar, that work on the same principle as AdSense.
In fact, most of them will incorporate Google AdSense in their ad placements.
With ads, you can expect to make between £3 and £20 per 1,000 visitor that reads your blog.
For example, if you have 5,000 readers in a day on your site, you will make between £15 and £100 per day, or between £450 and £3,000 per month.
Another popular way to make money once you have traffic is through affiliate commissions.
For example, if you write about "The best dog food to buy for your dog", you can genuinely recommend products in your article, to your readers.
You can direct your readers to buy them from an e-commerce website via a special affiliate URL that will track if that user actually buys the food.
If they buy the food, you will receive a 2%-10% commission on that sale.
Now multiply this with thousands of users that visit your website, and you will be making hundreds, or thousands of pounds in commission with your site, every month.
Some of the most popular affiliate networks are Amazon Affiliates, Awin, Clickbank, Rakuten, and you will find products for every possible niche and industry, that you can recommend.
The idea is to have quality content that your readers get informed on, and genuinely recommend products that are relevant to the topic of the article.
Mark Webster, from Authority Hacker advises people to explore this opportunity that is available to everyone, and has a very low barrier to entry.
"Building a blog and making money with ads or affiliate commissions might be one of the best ways to diversify your income, even if you keep your full-time job.
"If you are doing all things right and take massive action, your passive income can match your salary within a year and change your life."