Ryan Hogue, a former web developer and adjunct professor who quit both jobs to embark on his first side hustle journey on Amazon for $0, balanced two jobs and freelancing after seeing the potential to generate passive income by selling print-on-demand t-shirts through Amazon Merch on Demand.
Hogue's offerings initially included t-shirts but have now expanded to tank tops, long-sleeve shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, phone cases, pillows, and tote bags. With the platform's expansion into international markets, Hogue now sells its products to customers in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Japan.
The Amazon side hustle ultimately helped Hogue quit his day job in 2020. What initially started as a single experimental side hustle has blossomed into ten income streams, collectively generating $49,000 monthly in passive income.
Here are some of Hogue's favorite $0 side hustles and top tips for getting started in 2024.
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Amazon's Merch on Demand
This platform has become Hogue's preferred passive income opportunity, where products are printed and shipped only after a sale. His responsibilities involve creating graphic designs and listing them for sale on various products within the Amazon Merch catalog. Hogue has found that simple, text-based designs can generate significant sales and that design experience is unnecessary to be successful.
He loves automation the most about this platform. Once an order is placed, Amazon routes it to one of its production facilities, where the product is printed and shipped directly to the customer. Hogue receives a monthly payout for the royalties generated on his sales.
Print on Demand
Amazon Merch is not the sole avenue for earning through print-on-demand. He has leveraged the designs created for his Amazon Merch side hustle and extended them to other products and marketplaces.
Since 2018, Hogue has been selling print-on-demand products on Etsy. The only expense involved is a $0.20 fee for creating a product listing, but with an invite link, you can score 40 free listings. Hogue relies on Printful for order fulfillment, seamlessly integrating with Etsy, automating order fulfillment, and notifying customers once their orders are shipped.
In addition to Etsy, Hogue suggests exploring other platforms like Walmart, eBay, and Redbubble to cross-list print-on-demand products. He utilizes all three platforms, noting that Redbubble and eBay have been established for some time, while Walmart entered the scene as an option just last year.
Amazon's Influencer Program
Since September 2023, both Hogue and his fiance have been members of the Amazon Influencer Program, enabling them to earn passive income by producing video reviews of their own Amazon products.
Joining the program is entirely free, and you can kickstart by recording videos using your smartphone. Once uploaded, your videos are showcased on the Amazon product detail page of the item you reviewed and on similar products. If a viewer watches your video before making a purchase, you typically earn a 1-3% commission.
Hogue suggests beginning by reviewing all the products you already own that are available on Amazon. Regardless of where you originally purchased them, if the item is for sale on the platform, it is fair game for a review.
Having personally reviewed hundreds of products, and with his fiancé nearing 1,000, Hogue believes this is a fantastic yet relatively undiscovered opportunity for generating passive income.
YouTube
YouTube remains an ever-popular side hustle that you can begin today for $0, armed only with a smartphone and internet access. Crafting videos centered around Hogue's passions and hobbies often does not feel like work at all.
To monetize a YouTube channel with AdSense, you must accumulate 4,000 watch time hours across all your video uploads and gain 1,000 subscribers. Upon approval, monthly payments will be based on the number of ads your viewers watch.
Hogue currently earns $4,900 monthly in passive income from his YouTube channel. He and his fiancé recently embarked on a joint venture, starting a channel where they unbox Amazon return pallets to resell the products for profit. It is an enjoyable project to work on together, but they are also on track to earn ad revenue once the channel meets the monetization requirements.
Reflecting on the abundance of exciting side hustle opportunities, Hogue advises approaching them with a positive attitude and a long-term perspective despite any initial learning curve. While scaling these income streams to replace a full-time income may take time, he believes it is achievable based on his experiences.
