4 work-from-home side hustles that made all the difference when the pandemic decimated 75% of my income (2024)

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• In 2020, I was on track to make more money than ever — until the pandemic dried up my income streams.
• To make money, I turned to side hustles I could do from home.
• I created online courses, sold my stuff, sought out freelance writing gigs, and took online surveys.
• Read more stories from Personal Finance Insider.

At the start of 2020, I had a plan in place to make more money as a solopreneur than I've ever made before. I had a long list of client work, speaking engagements, and projects in the works that were going to generate a six-figure income for the year.

In March of 2020, when the pandemic put the world on pause, I lost more than 75% of that work and that money.

I had no choice but to sit down and do some serious brainstorming. I wanted to figure out multiple gigs I could do from home to bring in money and stay busy during a chaotic time. After making a long list of potential jobs, I narrowed it down to four side hustles that I ended up doing to recoup income during the pandemic.

1. Online courses

I had created my first online course in 2017 and saw the potential of how having courses can be a great way of bringing in recurring income. I narrowed down a few skills of mine that I knew I could teach in a unique and engaging way and set out to create an online course for each skill. It took 20-30 days to write, design, and film video for each course and I released three in 2020.

To make the courses stand out from others out there, I did a competitor analysis research chart, asked my audience what they wanted to learn in the courses, and gave each participant individual feedback throughout the course. I was able to generate a few thousand dollars a month by selling online courses.

If you want to create your own course, look at the skills you have that are in-demand, write out an outline for your course, and begin building it on a platform, like Thinkific.

2. Selling my stuff

With so much free time during the pandemic, I found myself constantly cleaning out my apartment.

I decided that I was going to sell as much of my unwanted stuff as I could. I gathered all the furniture, appliances, clothes, and household goods that I wanted to sell and wrote descriptions for each item along with a purchase price. I then took photos of everything and used an app called OfferUp.

While this was a bit time intensive at the start, it paid off when each of these items sold. I ended up earning over $1,000 selling things around my house.

3. Freelance gigs

Before the pandemic, I had dabbled with setting up a freelance profile on websites like Fiverr and Upwork but didn't do much work through those places. I decided to pick that back up again and offer freelance writing and marketing strategy to companies, brands, or people in-need.

Instead of using traditional freelance websites, where it can be competitive to find jobs, I spread the word that I was offering these services to friends, past colleagues, and posted about it in Facebook and Linkedin groups. I was able to land anywhere from three to five freelancing jobs a month that brought in a few thousand dollars total.

4. Taking surveys

When I found myself watching a lot of TV during the pandemic, I made a promise to myself that I'd also try to monetize that time in any way that I could. That's why I started doing online surveys, which generated cash while I sat on the couch and watched my favorite shows.

I used websites like Survey Junkie and Wynter at least two or three times a week and devoted one or two hours to doing surveys each day. I didn't make thousands of dollars doing this (more like $10 to $50 per survey, which took anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour) but it made me feel productive and provided me with cash while I was watching entertainment.