At the time of writing this post, I've really only been pursuing various side gigs & passive income projects for a bit over a year; though really, this all started a few years prior to that.
The spark of all this nonsense was back when I bought my first 3D Printer. I was enamored with the technology; but the damn thing cost me $1k. It was at this very point, I think, that I started tumbling down the rabbit hole--as I decided I wanted to
use my 3D Printer to recoup at least some of the cost I put into buying it.
At first, I listed a couple things I made on Etsy.
I made one or two sales, so I put up some more items. (A combination of things I made, and models on Thingiverse specifically marked with 'Commercial Use Allowed'). More sales, more listings.
Before I knew it, I had paid off my 3D Printer, and I was getting more sales than I could handle on one printer... so I bought a second. This later turned into a third, then a fourth, and then a resin printer.
Since then, unfortunately, my 3D Print success has dwindled, ever since Etsy closed down my shop (pro tip: Don't sell stuff themed after video games or other IPs, even if you think it's Fair Use...). However, I have since started up many other projects, which I'll get into below.
My success with the 3D Printing had led me to discover the FIRE movement (an acronym which, if you are not familiar, stands for 'Financially Independent--Retired Early'). After reading up on it a bit and lurking subreddits such as r/financialindependence, one common recurring theme was the idea of secondary and even tertiary revenue sources outside of your main day job/career.
To me, this was the bell curve--where I fell off into the deep end; spending many hours researching various extra projects and revenue sources I could pursue; eventually winding up at my current number of
15 different income source projects.
That's the quick n' dirty of the last couple years, that have led me up until this point.
So, here's where I'm at, for my current projects, including a bit of background on them:
- Online 3D Print Sales.
The OG side hustle I mentioned above; my 'Durham 3D Printing' project started out on Etsy, and then spread to the current roster of sales channels: Ebay, Bonanza, and Shopify. Customer buys an item and specifies the material and color; I then print it off and ship it to them. Unfortunately, the numbers are nowhere near as strong as they once were.
- Affiliate Marketing.
A staple in any passive income & side hustle portfolio, my particular brand of poison is Amazon Associates. I use this in conjunction with my outdoors-oriented Youtube channel (see number 8 below), where I link to various equipment that I use or review in the video description. At the moment, this averages out to a few bucks a month, but this will scale with my channel
- Print On Demand--Redbubble and Shapeways.
One of the projects I'm focusing on at the time of writing; Redbubble is an artwork print-on-demand site that lets you upload artwork and let other buy t-shirts, mugs, phone cases, and more, with your artwork on it. Redbubble takes the base cost, and you can specify a markup on top of that. Shapeways, on the other hand, is a 3D Print on Demand service; letting you upload 3D Printable 3d models. Much like Redbubble, you specify a markup over and above the base cost, and when an item sells, shapeways handles the print (or metal casting!) and shipping, and you earn your specified markup. Redbubble has been practically useless to me so far, but Shapeways is showing a lot of potential. Numbers are small right now, but I aim to scale this up
- Books.
The most common of which are e-books, but this can include physically published media as well. For me, personally, I'm working on a fiction novel. This is a long-reaching project, as it's more of a passion project than something I'm actually specifically looking to make money on. I'll share more on this in the future, as I am quite narratively excited to write this one!
- Cryptocurrency Mining & Trading.
The crypto boom from a few years ago has sadly faded, but there is still money to be made for those in the right situation. For me, I pay a fixed electric rate as part of my rental contract, so I pay the same amount whether I am using no electricity, or maxing out my circuits. Currently I have four 5-card GPU rigs, two 2-card GPU rigs, and two ASIC miners (an Antminer L3+ and an Antminer Z9 Mini) mining away, earning me--on average--about $10 a day. In addition to this, I also have a homebrew algo trading bot that I have trading for me on Binance and Bittrex. It's barely profitable, but over time, I'm improving it's performance.
- Drop-Shipping.
Of all the projects on my list, this one I have put the least amount of effort into. Drop-shipping, if you are not familiar, is the act of listing items for sale on your shop, and when purchased, having them shipped direct from the manufacturer or third party supplier; preventing you from having to physically store inventory. Unfortunately, I think this particular side hustle is vastly oversaturated! (My particular niche idea is EDC and outdoors gear)
- Investments & Debt Elimination.
Making money from money is the time-honored classic passive income project. Investments--whether it be bonds, stocks, options, so on and so forth--generate you money in the long term by being invested. Additionally, by paying off debts early, you are essentially giving yourself free income in the form of saved interest payments!
- Youtube Channel.
I have an outdoors-related Youtube channel with the mission statement of, 'combining fun and futuristic technology with traditional outdoors experiences.' I want to combine my love of tech with the love of outdoors. Things like 3D Printing, electric skateboards, and drones are examples. My channel is called 'Mike in the Woods', if you're curious. As of writing, I'm at 569 subscribers; well under the 1,000 needed to enable monetization; but I'll get there eventually.
- Apps, Scripts, & Games.
Currently, I haven't done too much under this, which makes direct use of my primary skillset--programming. I'm in the process of setting up a Shopify store where I will sell various scripts, apps, and maybe even some little games I've created, for various purposes. Initial product selection will be some custom strategies & indicators I wrote for Gekko (an open-source cryptocurrency trading bot)
- Game Assets.
As I originally went to school for Game Development, making games and related assets is one of my fundamental passions. There are sites like Turbosquid and the Unity Asset Store where I can publish various 3d models, textures, and scripts for game development uses. I've made a couple sales on this over time, but nothing spectacular--but that's because I haven't put much time into it.
- Upwork & Fiverr.
The gig economy at it's finest. Essentially, you can hire out your primary and secondary skills for longer-term projects (Upwork) or more short-term projects (Fiverr). I haven't put too much focus here, as I am trying to shy away from side projects where income is directly tied to time investment (hourly rate), and more towards things that can exponentially scale independent of time spent.
- Online Courses.
One day, I'll release a course on somewhere like Udemy; but I feel like I need more knowledge and confidence before I can pursue a project like this that people will want to pay for. Maybe I'll do one on passive income and side gigs, but I feel like that particular niche is well oversaturated...
- Flipping.
One of the surprising successes in my portfolio, having overtaken my 3D Print sales. Essentially, I'm reselling things on places like Ebay, Bonanza, Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji, and Craigslist for higher than I bought them for. Primarily electronics and computer parts, but no niche is off limits for me. Life Pro Tip: Thrift stores are excellent places to source items!
- Social Media Bot.
I wrote a bot in C# that posts on twitter for me. Currently, all it does is bolster my other existing projects, such as links to my Binance referral page. Still trying to think of ways to monetize the bot specifically under this project title, but it's a nice supporter in the mean time!
- Passive Income and Side Gig Blog.
Yes, this very same one. Ad revenue, maybe some affiliate links, and potentially other methods, that I will be pursuing with this blog--but in a way that will be tasteful and non-intrusive. Honestly, I don't really care about monetizing this blog--I moreso aim to want to provide value to other people out of my struggles.
Well, that's all for today, I think--will be posting lots in the future!
If you find these posts helpful, and you are interested in
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https://www.binance.com/en/register?ref=WZKZ16ZW
See you next post!
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