5 apps that can help you start real estate, resale, or other online side hustles

Hosting a short-term rental can be a great way to earn passive income from a home you already own.

For example, Inayah McMillan is an Airbnb host with 11 listings in St. Louis. She booked $375,000 in revenue in 2022, Insider previously reported.

While many people own the homes they rent out on Airbnb, that's not a requirement for making extra cash on the platform, she said. She uses a method known as rental arbitrage, in which a host rents their listings and puts them on Airbnb with permission from their landlord.

Selling handmade and customized products on Etsy is a popular side hustle, which gives people the ability to work from home, be their own bosses, and earn passive income. Some entrepreneurs can even turn their side hustles into six-figure businesses.

Ashley Bostwick started her Etsy shop, Wander and Lust Jewelry, in 2014 as a side hustle. Since then, she's booked $1.9 million in lifetime sales on Etsy and expanded her services to include teaching other Etsy sellers about building businesses.

Bostwick attributed her success to following trends in the market, finding holes in the jewelry category, and personalizing and customizing her products.

Services like marketing, social-media management, and programming are some of the top searches on the freelance platform Fiverr, a representative from the company previously told Insider. 

Cathy Hernandez and her husband, John, founded their business, Agency Social, in 2014 and used Fiverr to gain clients. They offer a variety of social-media services, such as management, content creation, blog writing, social-media audits, and content calendars. The cofounders earned $93,137 in sales on Fiverr in 2021, which Insider verified with documentation.

At first, Hernandez set low prices for her services to build a reputation on the platform. Over time, she gained more reviews, built up her credibility, and raised her prices.

Selling on Poshmark has become an especially popular side hustle among college students to cover living expenses while maintaining a flexible schedule around classes. Plus, the secondhand market is expected to be worth $77 billion by 2025, a ThredUp report found. 

Janae Smith has been selling clothing and accessories on Poshmark since 2019. She started by pulling unwanted clothes from her and her mother's closets and listed between 10 and 15 items a week.

Last year, Smith balanced her side hustle with attending community college and made more than $7,000 in sales, which she used for tuition, gas, and living expenses. In total, she has earned $38,700 since she started selling, which Insider verified with documentation.

Smith finds most of her inventory at local liquidation stores in San Antonio, where she looks for name brands and items that cost $10 or less. 

Freelancing is on the rise as more people look for ways to turn their skills into side income.

Courtney Allen is a freelance copywriter and presentation designer in Seoul, South Korea. She started freelancing in 2016 after a failed business attempt left her with $25,000 in credit-card debt. She leveraged her PowerPoint and graphic-design skills to establish her own agency, 16X9. She has earned more than $1.3 million in total payments on the freelance platform Upwork, which Insider verified with documentation.

Allen suggests freelancers be selective when establishing their clientele: She accepts only about 30% of the inbound requests she receives and has introduction calls to ensure each client is a good fit.