4 Popular Online Side Hustles That Are a Waste of Time

These side hustles are great if you don’t like getting paid

Identifying side hustles you can make money from is crucial these days. It seems like scams are around every corner and sadly many people fall for them.

Side hustles are great ways to make extra money, but they can also be great ways to waste time.

I like to call myself an expert in this subject because technically I wrote the book on side hustles. And honestly, one reason I wrote that book was just so I could write out that line. Mission accomplished.

But seriously, I’ve tried a lot of side hustles. I mean like more than I ever should have.

During my side hustle journey, I’ve encountered more than my fair share of time wasters. I know first-hand how depressing it is to put my time and effort into a side gig that turns out to be a waste.

Here’s my quick list of side hustles everyone should avoid. If you’re considering one of these for your next project, I highly suggest rethinking it unless you don’t like money.

Vocal.media

Ask almost any writer and they will tell you not to write for Vocal.media.

Most writers will agree that Vocal is not the best platform to make money on.
Or grow a following on.
Or even get views on.

I only have two experiences with Vocal. The first one is publishing my first story on the platform and the second is reporting another user for plagiarizing that same story a month later.

Yes, someone ripped off my story word for word in a month’s time and I had to contact Vocal to make them take it down. I learned that Vocal’s customer support is awesome, they acted quickly to remove the post. Almost as if they were used to that kind of thing happening…

Definitely don’t waste your time writing on Vocal. Not only will you not get paid, but there’s also a chance your work might get plagiarized. No one wants that.

Try writing on Medium or Textbroker if you want to earn money instead.

Bitclout

I’m going to come out and say it, I’m a Bitclout hater.

It’s an online platform that blew up during summer 2021 and was pushed HARD by a lot of writers. It’s sort of like a rip-off of Twitter, but it’s on a blockchain.

Users can create their own coins and profiles on Bitclout. These profiles go up and down in value depending on —well, basically depending on how popular you are online.

Have a massive, loyal online following? It would make sense to promote Bitclout because they will make your coin go up in value, hence making you more money.

Don’t have a massive online readership? Too bad.

Other than my lack of faith in buying another person’s digital coin on a rip-off Twitter platform, many users also reported not being able to withdraw money from the platform.

Looking past the irony of the situation, I highly suggest avoiding Bitclout if you actually want to make money. I REALLY don’t like this platform.

NFTs

As cool as I once thought NFTs were, I could never bring myself to buy one. And I never will.

It’s not that I don’t respect how images, music and other pieces of digital art can become 1:1 items because they are tied to the blockchain. I actually think that is really awesome.

But unless you’re buying a super popular NFT — like a Cryptopunk — you’re really just giving your money to someone’s graphic design work. Which is fine.

However, to think you’re going to turn around and sell some random artist’s image on a platform like OpenSea just because it’s an NFT is the wrong kind of thinking. You’ll end up wasting your money on a digital image that will only be valuable to you.

If you think buying and selling NFTs is a side hustle that will actually work, I highly suggest rethinking your game plan.

YouTube

YouTube is the side hustle we all want to be great at, but very few of us will succeed.

I’ve created 5 different YouTube channels over the last 2 years and none of them have taken off. The last one I created has 7 videos up on it and the views just don’t move.

I’m not conceited. I know it might just be that I suck at video and can’t produce content people want to see.

However, even if I could do both of those things I wouldn’t be able to monetize my content until I earn “4,000 hours of overall watch time within the past 12 months and have at least 1,000 subscribers.”

I’ll pass.

While YouTube is the one side hustle on this list that I think is possible to make some money on, it’s really going to take a lot of work.

For me, YouTube just isn’t worth it. Especially when there are side hustles I can start today and make money from tomorrow.

Some online side hustles that actually pay money

Where do I even start?

There are so many online side hustles that will pay you real, spendable money:

You can make money from any of those side hustles. None of them will be a waste of your time because they’ve already proven themselves to many people as sources of income.

Don’t bet your time on prospective side hustles (cough Bitclout cough), side hustles that don’t pay or side hustles that seem scammy.

Spend your time doing gigs that will actually make money.