SIDE hustles have been in hot demand in 2022 \u2013 and money expert Melanin King claims to be raking in an extra $11,000 per month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 21-year-old real estate agent has been doing\u00a0side hustles<\/a>\u00a0since he was a young kid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Melanin didn\u2019t move to America until he turned nine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It started in his African<\/a>-living days by just selling candy through vendors and making money by recycling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This included walking around his neighborhood and collecting metal pieces in a bag and then taking them to a junkyard for some extra cash. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He told The Sun that he has always seen \u201cmoney in everything\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He added: “Any place I go to or any new side hustle that I see, I think of things like, how much is the owner profiting from this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n “What [is] the cost to start my own? What is stopping me from starting my own?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Chicago<\/a>, Illinois resident has also been able to take that a step further with his YouTube channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He started making\u00a0credit card<\/a>-related videos when he was 15 and still enrolled in high school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Melanin found some early success and even earned a $300 check, he had trouble finding a balance with school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy biggest problem was I was doing that with school, I was never really consistent,\u201d Melanin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While YouTube was a great start for Melanin, his social media emergence didn’t happen until he started his TikTok channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was influenced in combination by his business partner, friends and some social media followers to start up TikTok. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What really got everything going was when his business partner put pressure on him one day when he visited his house to make a video \u2013 and it’s safe to say that it worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His first one was a clip about getting a real estate license that got 400 views within the first day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Melanin added that \u201cwithin less than 24 hours from that, it had gained like 10,000 views and I was like whoa, what’s going on?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n To this day, Melanin has continued making personal finance content, which also includes advice on investing as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His TikTok channel<\/a>, where he goes by therealmelaninking, has grown past 200,000 followers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On YouTube<\/a>, he has more than 8,000 subscribers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Social media is just one side hustle for Melanin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, he is making money off couch flipping and another passive income source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While he hasn\u2019t posted a video on the couch side hustle, he said you could get \u201ca lot of money\u201d from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBasically, you just search on websites, like OfferUp, Facebook [marketplace],\u201d Melanin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLook for any beat-up couch; people [are giving them] away for free when they move and stuff like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “You pick them up, and you flip them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Melanin has previously said that you can \u201ceasily\u201d\u00a0sell couches<\/a>\u00a0in the range of $200 to $600.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Selling eight couches per week for $300 will earn you $2,400.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over a month, this equals $9,600.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Melanin also earns passive income from investments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But of course, keep in mind, that you\u2019re never guaranteed to make a profit from that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, the value of your assets could fall if you\u2019re not careful or are invested in the wrong securities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Melanin recommends investing in index funds because of the diversity they offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is because these types of securities track the performance of various companies \u2013 rather than just an individual one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, Melanin has said<\/a>, \u201cif one stock goes down, you still have 499 more to go\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Melanin has experimented with a ton of other side hustles in the past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One includes cases for air pods, which he originally bought off AliExpress, a Chinese-based e-commerce platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, Melanin was once able to swoop up 30 of them for about $150 total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After they arrived in the mail, he advertised them on his Snapchat story for $15-$20 each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Within the first day, Melanin made a little more than his money back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you can sell air pod cases for $20 each that would mean you would make $450 in profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But keep in mind, that the items could take two weeks to arrive due to shipping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Melanin has done something similar with rose bears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When he was in high school, Melanin would order more than 100 of them and then sell them for profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Melanin also recommends going through thrift stores and using a barcode scanning app to what they sell for online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ll go on websites like Mercari Poshmark Offerup, Letgo, Facebook marketing and a couple of other ones,\u201d Melanin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would just download that [barcode] app and just post it on [all] platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another side hustle that Melanin touted was print on demand which allows merchants to upload their designs for items such as t-shirts and sweatshirts and sell them to customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This can be done on Shopify and Etsy \u2013 but Melanin prefers the latter of the two platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEtsy already has the traffic,\u201d Melanin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Melanin said you can earn $200 an hour doing this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was able to make money relatively fast,\u201d Melanin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou just create [and] put some designs on a store.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Affiliate marketing is another one that could pay off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By doing this, you earn commission by promoting another person or brand\u2019s products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On average, affiliate marketers make $154,983 per year, or $12,915 per month, according to ZipRecruiter<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Melanin said that it does take some time to build up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Melanin’s case, he has a \u201creferral link\u201d in his bio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen people click that I’ll get a referral fee,\u201d Melanin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou just need a special link [and] have to kind of have an audience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Avoiding burnout is a big challenge when it comes to balancing side hustles with full-time jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ideally, you\u2019ll want to maximize your earnings while putting in as little time as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That said, every side hustle is different, with some needing to put in a little more work into side hustles than others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Melanin\u2019s advice is to cut out the time spent on watching movies and playing video games, in particular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you spent two hours a day playing video games, or two hours a day watching movies, just eliminate that,\u201d Melanin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He added: \u201cUse that time to make money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, you may not have to cut it all out \u2013 but at least until you get to the point of having enough financial flexibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\nCurrent side hustles<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Other side hustles<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Balancing side hustles with full-time jobs <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How to manage money during uncertainties<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n