30+ Actionable Ways To Make Money During A Lockdown. Side Business Ideas

Today, I’m going to show you the best side business ideas you can start today.

2021 brought changes in the workplace we have never seen before that will last a very long time.

In this article, you will find some ways to make money during the lockdown.

With social distancing, and working from home, the e-commerce industry for example has seen accelerated year-on-year growth of 4 to 6 years

So be sure to check out the business ideas in this article, some being low-cost and pandemic-proof.

If you want to start a successful business that earns you money from home, then this list is for you.

 

The Best Side Business Idea To Start.

Check out this list of 30 of the best small business ideas to start in 2022 and beyond.

If you are in the middle of brainstorming what business idea to pick, read this article first.

1. Best online business idea: Blogging profitably
2. Online Courses Coaching and Consulting.
3. Starting an Ecommerce business via Dropshipping
4. Freelancing and virtual assistant work
5. Start a podcast
6. The wonderful world of Affiliate Marketing
7. Guest Writer Jobs
8. Sell Merch & Custom Printed Products
9. Graphic Design Work
10. Become an Instagram Influencer
11.  Become a Social Media Manager i.e. SMMA
12.  Low Content Kindle Publishing
13.  Buy & sell Domains or Websites Online
14.  Wedding Photographer
15. WordPress Website Consultant
16. Uber Eats, Deliverroo services
17. Invest your money
18. Dog walking
19. Create a Youtube channel
20. Ghostwriter
21. Micro agency
22. Content Creator 
23. Contractor
24. Amazon
25. Airbnb
26. Meal prep
27. Bookkeeping and accountants
28. Become an infopreneur
29. Bonus: Most profitable (spend little time and start-up money)
30. Bonus: How to earn money fast

1# Side Business Idea: Blogging Profitably

A blog is a very lucrative side business model to start in 2021. A typical blog can be monetized either by:

• your own coaching or consulting program.
• your own products either eCommerce or digital saas.
• someone else’s products via affiliate marketing and ads.

Blogs offer freedom and security compared to most other types of online businesses because you are the owner. 

A future-proof side business idea.

Unlike running a social media-based business where you can be shut down by the platforms, it’s hard to shut down a blog. 

So how do you get started with a blog? 

You want to pick a niche that you are fairly knowledgeable and passionate about. 

You do not need to be a writer or like writing. However, you need to create content based on what people want to read. 

You can always hire content writers online to do that for you.

For those who hate writing content. *Attention* Do not listen to the people who say, “blog about your passions” 

If you want to make money with your blog as soon as possible. 

If you want to make money all you have to do is solve people’s problems and help them get what they want. 

Even though you are passionate about a subject, if no one else is as interested in this as you, then it becomes hard to monetize your blog. 

So what does this mean for a blogger? find out what people are struggling with then help them.

 You can find out what people are struggling with by using Google Keywords.   People will pay you to solve their problems. 

Get it? 

This is a lucrative business idea If you are selling a product on your blog. 

However, the product has to solve a problem for the customer. 

If you are selling a coaching program, likewise.  

I prefer to sell other people’s products or tools that help solve problems.

AKA affiliate marketing. 

Here are the main steps to starting a word blog.

1. Choose a niche, based on what people need help with. Although it helps if you are passionate about the subject because this is reflected in the content you write.
2. Choose a domain name and set up Web hosting. You can set it up for as little as $2.95 / month if you use Bluehost.
3. Install a WordPress theme that complements your content. User experience is greatly affected by your design which in turn affects how Google ranks your website. The one I recommend is called DIVI. A beginner-friendly and easy-to-use drag and drop theme.
4. Familiarize yourself with SEO (search engine optimization) and other ways to get traffic to your websites like using social media i.e. Pinterest or Youtube.
5. Expand your blog exposure using link-building strategies, which basically build your blog’s domain authority.

Make sure to check out this free book on how to get traffic (people) to your offers and businesses. 

It’s called Traffic secrets. 

It’s important to monetize your blog. So which tactic will you pick? 

Remember you can sell your own products or other people’s products and software via affiliate marketing and receive a monthly recurring commission. 

You can also sell your own knowledge and time via a course program or consulting for your expertise. 

If you are looking for a business model that’s low risk- high reward, blogging is great for that. 

You can see a lot of success from this with little costs to reward.

 It’s my go-to choice and lucrative business to start. 

Ready to start a blog? I recommend you sign up with blue host web hosting for 2.95 / month, 63% cheaper than the regular pricing.   

How To Start A Blog Infographic

2# Side Business Idea: Online Courses Coaching and Consulting.

The course industry is set to be a 325 billion-dollar industry by 2025, so you might want a piece of this pie. Last year online courses made $46 billion dollars. 

Courses or consulting are great for selling your expertise in a particular area that people are interested in.

So the biggest mistake people make is to copy other people’s courses.

That just doesn’t work, and if it works, not for long.

To have the best courses, it’s best to start consulting first, i.e. having people hire you to help them with what you know.

Why so?

Because consulting allows you to work 1 on 1 with people you hone your craft and understand the clients’ problems better with time.

So when you scale these problem-solving techniques with a course, you can easily speak your clients’ language.

Remember: you are the expert in your experience.

Therefore your most profitable course or consulting lies in.

1. A problem you have solved
2. Obstacles you have overcome
3. A career you’ve had and the expertise/experience that came with that
4. Or your own zero-to-hero journey

For example, you can start a ‘Youtube business course’ if you have the knowledge & experience.

It’s not as complicated as you might think, and the key to growing this as a successful online business is to keep things simple.

In fact, you do not need to finish the course in order to sell it and make thousands of dollars in revenue with it.

You can actually presell your course before it’s finished.

This method is beneficial to the sustainability and success of the client results you are going to get with your course if you follow a flywheel model.

When you create content people get value from it and are transformed after enrollment, they become your ambassador and tell other people about you.

This means you get referral clients, who join your ecosystem and in turn, they become your ambassadors.

Sounds awesome right?

Like I said earlier, you can host your course on your blog however, the downside is, as a beginner you have to either spend money through advertising to get people to your blog,

or spend time learning and implementing SEO (search engine optimization).

Don’t fret tho, there’s a much faster way to get clients to your course and that’s through online course platforms.

Online course platforms are places where you can get immediate traffic to your courses.

There are a handful of awesome platforms where you can host your courses.

Among the best are Thinkific and Teachable to get you started right away. Just register on their platforms to get started.

You can get started today with one month of the Thinkific pro plan using my link

3# Side Business Idea: eCommerce Dropshipping

Dropshipping is a business model in the eCommerce space that basically allows you to sell products online without holding inventory.

Are you amazed yet?

You should be because this means,

No storage cost, no hiring people in the beginning (unless you are scaling your business)

You can work from home, the beach, a Starbucks coffee store, since you do not fulfill orders yourself.,

Start making money as soon as today if you are skilled enough.

This is how the dropshipping model works

If you want to create a website for this business model, I recommend using Shopify to create your store.

The process is simple.

1. Go to the ecommerce platform of your choice
2. Do product research, you want to sell things people would not find in a regular brick mortar.
3. Upload the product information
4. Set up the billing, shipping, and tax information
5. Test everything works and Launch.

While the process is simple, there’s a lot more information you need to know. Like Facebook, or Google marketing.

Nonetheless, you can get started today with a Shopify ecommerce store for only $29/month.

If you are a Brick and Mortar business and want to transition online I would recommend Shopify as the best option.

Shopify is the best eCommerce platform online and has a powerful point of sale (POS) for a brick-and-mortar business. 

Integrated payments and ease of use software with hardware.

Dropshipping is one of the best business ideas for 2022 and beyond because the ecommerce industry is booming right now.

4# Side Business Idea: Freelancing And Virtual Assistant Work

Freelancers and virtual assistants are in high demand in the online business industry. 

Every entrepreneur needs them, once they get past their solopreneur phase.

So getting yourself trained as a virtual assistant right now is a really really smart idea.

As a Virtual assistant or freelancer you can do things like :

• Manage content
• Social media work
• Help with landing pages
• Customer service.
  and many more.
• Audio Transcription Services

If you can hone in on a particular skill you can be in demand.

There are tons of people looking for virtual assistants on websites like Freelancer or Flexjobs.

You can sign up for free. Being a Virtual assistant is one of the best business ideas to start with if you are low on money.

5# Side Business Idea: Start A Podcast

You can start a podcast from the comfort of your own home.

Why would you consider starting one?

Well for starters they are very lucrative. Top podcasters like the JRE (Joe Rogan Experience ) show can make an excess of $800,000 per episode.

Wowza!

Successful podcasters are those who can release topics that people want to hear.

They are not boring!

You can start your podcast with little difficulty.

It’s not difficult to set up, just find the right podcast platforms, tools, and equipment that can be sourced online.

Check out my guide on podcast hosting to know more about setting up correctly.

You can get started today by signing up with Buzzsprout and getting a free $20 Amazon gift card to spend on your podcast equipment or anything else. 

6# Side Business Idea: Become An Affiliate 

Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest low cost and most profitable ways to start generating passive income in 2022 from your online business.

When done correctly you can generate substantial monthly passive income without you having to work long hours, even earning while you sleep.

You do not have to create any product of your own or put your time and effort into creating something new.

You can sell things that already exist and if you have the right affiliate strategies you can be successful.

You can get started by registering to affiliate networks like Clickbank, Rakuten, Shareasale,

Awin, Skimlinks.

Similarly, you can also go-to products or companies you have used before and look on their websites if they have affiliate programs.

To be successful with affiliate marketing, you have to focus on a niche and focus on a handful of affiliate products to promote.

The key is Focus.

For example, if you promote cooking gear, you do not want to promote cat food at the same time.

It’s conflicting with your audience.

Staying congruent means more trust, stronger messages, and more success.

When you follow proven methods then affiliate marketing can be extremely profitable.

Super affiliate Top earners like Pat Flynn earn upward of  $100,000 a month.

So, if you want to focus on this method, there is no limit to your success.

To be transparent with you, this blog has some affiliate links. 

Therefore if you happen to take action via one of my affiliate links, I get a small commission at no cost to you.

You do not need to write a blog to use affiliate marketing, however.

In fact, many of the successful ‘super affiliates’ do not have websites. Most of them use Funnels.

What is a funnel you ask?

A funnel is a web page that is designed to make a visitor take an action upon visiting a page. 

This could be, clicking a link, submitting information, buying a product, signing up for an event or meeting, joining a webinar, etc.

So why is a funnel better?

• A funnel drives 6x the results.
• It’s like having your own personal salesperson.
• Can be easy to build (with the right training)

If you want to know more about how affiliate marketing works with funnels, enroll for the one funnel away challenge.  Affiliate Training included. 

 

7# Side Business Idea: Content Creator.

Guess what, if there are a lot of courses being created, personal brands, solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, and online businesses starting out, then there is a need for content creation. 

Content creation can be videographers, editors, photographers, copywriting, etc. 

So having the skill set of a content creator is so valuable.

Once you learn it you can upload your content to sites like Shutterstock and sell your content for people to use in their businesses. 

There are multiple ways you can benefit from content creation, it’s a really great place to start an online business and generate income. 

There are certain habits of successful content creators that you need to know.

One of the most important is specialization in one thing.

You tend to do better if you do. 

For example, if you are a fitness content creator and you are the go-to for creating ‘badass’ fitness content, videos, or photos, then you are going to have so many clients wanting to flock to you. 

This means a word-of-mouth recommendation for you.

People can easily recognize you as the best choice for that niche, for fitness videos or fitness photos.

You can pick any niche, but honing in on one niche as a content creator is a really profitable idea. 

You can always find clients on websites like Flexjobs or Upwork  or Freelancer  

 

 

8# Side Business Idea: Print On Demand

Print on demand is a business model, much like dropshipping but only with merch gear instead of regular products.

When you are doing print on demand, you are selling your own designed prints on products like T-shirts, mugs, hoodies, bags, blankets, etc without holding any inventory.

When a customer buys from your store, your print-on-demand supplier then prints the design, packages it, and ships it to your customer.

Below is an example of a print-on-demand product.

If you would like to start a print-on-demand business, You will need a few things.

1. Domain name: I recommend getting one from Namecheap
2. Shopify: e-commerce website business platform. Get 14 day trial of Shopify
3. Suppliers i.e.( Printful, Printify, Shineon,  Pillow Profits
4. Logo
5. Traffic source i.e. Facebook ads.

If you want to take away the guesswork and follow success, then you need a mentor to teach you the ropes. 

Check out our article on winning product research tools

 

 

9# Side Business Idea: Graphic Design

Graphic designers are in demand more than ever.

A graphic designer will always find work because nearly every online business model needs them.

They are the ones who design logos, banners, branding elements, podcast covers, website icons, and many more.

Heck, someone doing Print on demand (POD) can not sell any product if he doesn’t have a great graphic designer.

If you have any graphic design skills or are learning this skill, you are always going to find work.

The best part about it is, that the better your skills the more they pay. 

Good logo designers for example can be paid $1500 for a logo.

Bigger brands, like Pepsi and Symantec, are known to have paid $1,000,000 + for their logos.

If you want to make money with Graphic design, you can list your services in places like 99designs 

They pay their designers well.

 

10# Side Business Idea: Start a Micro Agency

A micro agency is a fairly recent business model that can be extremely profitable when done right. 

Means, If you are an expert in one particular social media platform you should consider starting a Micro agency. 

This business idea focuses on being ‘lean’ as an agency. It’s where you offer focused done for you services. 

Essentially, the word ‘micro’ means that the agency focuses on one thing. In other words, it’s a breakaway and the opposite of common social media agencies. 

Typical social media agencies are general in their services. 

They are ‘do all types’. 

So what does this mean? 

Social media agency work is changing. There is more demand for dialed-in and focused agencies that master a specific platform and are honed in. 

You are more likely to be successful when you focus on one platform. 

People will recognize you as the go-to ‘expert’ and the best choice for hire.

So for example, if you are an Instagram agency and that’s all you do, that then makes you magnetic for everyone who needs Instagram.

You should set out to master that one thing. Micro agencies can be:

• Pinterest agency
• YouTube agency
• Instagram agency
• Facebook agency
• Snapchat You get the idea.

  

11. Amazon

  Amazon is the biggest ecommerce company on the planet, made up of tons of sellers running their businesses via the platform. 

Here are some Amazon statistics to know, if you want to become an amazon seller:

• 9 out of 10 people check prices first on Amazon, before buying a product.
• Amazon sells 12 million-plus products
• 95 million people have Amazon prime
• 50% of sales on Amazon are from third-party sellers
• Amazon FBA gives sellers 30-50% increased sales.
• They ship more than 5 billion products a year worldwide.

This platform dominates all others and is full of opportunities for sellers from just about every other industry. 

To have a successful full Amazon store you have to:

1. Differentiate yourself from the competition by having something unique to offer, solve a problem with your products or find something you can do better than the competition.
2.  Develop a brand, which means, you can get easy recommendations, customer loyalty, makes you memorable, etc.
3. Invest in marketing within the Amazon platform
4. Use the right tools to help you sell more easily.
5. Get a mentor.

If you want to make money selling on Amazon and you do not know anything about it, sign up for a free Amazon webinar training here

 

12 # Side Business Idea: Becoming a contractor.

You can make a substantial amount of money if you love working on projects. 

If you are comfortable getting paid for the projects you complete then contracting is for you. 

On the other hand, it can be difficult at the start, because most successful contractors are ones who have built their reputation. 

With no reputation or reviews, people hesitate to sign up with new contractors. 

However once you have done a good job with a client, sooner or later word will spread via reviews or recommendations.  

If you don’t have an idea of where you want to start your business, you have no experience or money then a contractor can be a great place to start.

So what is it? 

This is to work with clients on projects. 

For example becoming a Youtube channel manager, building funnels, personal trainer, dog walker, dog cleaner, etc. 

After being a solo contractor after a while you can scale up to where you hire virtual assistants to do the work for you. 

By hiring other people to do the work you can easily scale it up for more revenue.  

You can easily get clients from websites like Fiverr or Freelancer when you post your services on the platforms. 

Virtual assistants can be hired easily via Onlinejobs.ph. They are the leading and cheapest place to find quality hires.  

 

 

13. Becoming an Instagram Influencer.

Instagram influencers with 50,000 to 80,000 can get up to $200 a post.

Advertisers will be willing to pay this much if you have a high engagement rate with your content.

This means you must nurture your profile, by connecting with your audience.

If you have an engagement rate that is high, and steady natural growth, then advertisers value this and would pay more.

You can find out your engagement by putting your profile on metrics trackers like; Ninjalytics or Socialblade

 

Are There Business Ideas You Can Start With No Money?

Absolutely!

You can start these number of businesses (listed below)  with literally no money.

Zero!

1. Join Fiverr and do Contractor gigs, virtual assistant, among other gigs

2. Coaching and Consulting 1:1

3. Freelance writing, on freelance websites

4.Offer SEO (search engine optimization) consulting, PPC, and content marketing

 

Which Startup Business Ideas Are The Best?

These startup business ideas are ones that are low cost and bring high returns in as short amount of time as possible. 

They do not necessarily take a long time to set up and you can start seeing results in the space of days of setting them up.

Some of these include:

1. E-commerce via Dropshipping. This is where you sell products online without holding inventory.

2. Investing in real estate

3. Starting your own blog. You can monetize this with ads, affiliate products, or your online course or service.

4. Start a podcast. Podcasts are steadily growing as a method of media consumption and you can run ads after building your audience.

5. Starting your own micro / social media and digital marketing agency.

7. Affiliate marketing

Which Are The Most Successful Small Businesses Ideas To Start ?

Success is relative to the quality of work you put in and not necessarily the quantity. 

In this online digital age, you can be extremely successful if you combine certain success factors.

Quality/value + Vehicle System x scale = success.

If you are scratching your brain over that one, here is what I mean.

By giving value and using the right business model and systems (like funnels, website) and scaling through various traffic methods you can see yourself very successful.

That being said, here are businesses that people will pay you a lot for.

1. Digital marketing
2. Various types of Consulting
3. Accounting and bookkeeping
4. Social Media Marketing Agencies
5. Dropshipping
6. Print on Demand
7. Warehouse and storage companies
8. Content transcribing , captioning & subtitling 

 

Get Ready Get Set.. Go!

There you have it. A list of the professions and small business ideas that can give you a decent income online.

From this list, you can hopefully pick ones that you are most drawn to based on your skills and interest. 

These are just a few, there are way more business ideas you can find.

If you feel that I might have missed some please let me know in the comments below.