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7 Best Digital Marketing Side Hustles to start in 2023

There are more than a hundred and one ways to make money remotely. And digital marketing has a well known reputation, either as full-time or as a side business.

The estimated value of the digital marketing market in 2022 is $460 billion! There is no question about if you should start a side business in this space if you want to start making extra income.

The best digital marketing side hustles ideas for the next decade include content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), conversion rate optimization, email marketing, social media advertising, and social media marketing.

Interesting facts:

  • Based on your availability and skills, the average income for digital marketer in U.S. is $60,267¹
  • Freelancer marketers earn on average 30 dollars per hour²

Seven Digital Marketing Side Hustles 

Marketing is a beautiful area of the business. Psychology, visual interaction, and copywriting are just some of the skills you have to master while entering this area. I have no doubt is one, and for me certainly, it was, of the most valuable skill pack I could acquire.

It just enhances the creativity in every direction and there are many great marketers nowadays making a lot of money.

They all started somewhere, and many of them entered this field when they started they own side business in marketing.

Let’s have a look at the best opportunities you have nowadays to start your own digital marketing business while still keeping your full time job. And of course, you can start from anywhere!

1. Email Marketing 

Email marketing is a digital marketing side hustle that helps you make money online from well-created email content

Of course, brands have abused the email marketing concept, but when done right, it can help you connect with your audience. It provides information about the reason your brand exists.  

With around 4 billions daily email users, email marketing offers you a “ready to enter” industry with huge potential for your side hustle.

If you are asking how to get into internet marketing, email marketing is one way to do it. Can you write captivating content? 

Do you know the way to your customers’ hearts, their wants, and needs? Once you can answer the question of what they need and how your brand can provide that service, you can create a relationship via email marketing. 

You need the ability to hook their attention and present your information in a way that benefits everyone. I believe strategic communication can help you avoid the much-dreaded spam tag that many businesses are guilty of. 

Average Annual Income – $92,655

You may not earn this much when starting as an email marketer, but Glassdoor postulates that email marketing brings in an average annual salary of $92,655. 

Scope 

Email marketing is essentially content creation. You write useful and entertaining information to increase awareness about and love for your brand. 

Where to Get Started 

Copywriting and email marketing automations are the two topics you have to dive deep in. Take some courses, read books and articles, and follow the brightest minds on social media.

As always, one of the best ways to start email marketing is to create goals for what you want.

Numerous freelancing opportunities are waiting for you, but you must be worth your salt. 

2. Conversion Rate Optimization 

To get into conversion rate optimization, you need to understand users and their behaviors.

What makes people take action on a website? What spurs them on? What are the triggers in their minds that move them to sign up for the newsletter or download an e-book?

Then, you can use this popular digital marketing technique to convince your audience to buy your goods or services, register for your newsletter or subscribe to your email, or do something actionable to improve the conversion rate on your site. 

Once you understand behavioral psychology, what humans want and need, and what you can do to make your services more attractive and irresistible to them. Then, optimize your website to give them what they want. It may be through interactive marketing, split testing, and content improvement. 

Average Annual Income – $71,343

Conversion rate optimization specialist can earn you an annual pay of $71,343. Of course, the amount you make depends on whom you work with, your experience level, and your role.  

Scope 

You must already have an idea of how conversion rate optimization works. Essentially, your job is to observe the website and how people interact with it, and then create systems that increase their interactions. 

The aim is to increase the percentage of users that fill out forms, sign up for newsletters, or do something differently to improve the visibility and progress of your brand. In other words, you aim to increase action taken.  

The tool set for conversion rate optimization is also very important. Some of the most used are:

  • hotjar – help you take recordings of your website or app visitors.
  • Google optimize – is a favorite free software used to run A/B or split-tests on the websites.
  • And one of the most important tools every digital marketer should know is Google Analytics

Google offer free courses on their side for every tool they provide. But you can find many guides on YouTube or anywhere on the web to learn how to use them.

Where to Get Started 

You need to start by learning from the best. That can provide all the information and guidance you need to make real money from conversion rate optimization. 

People like Peep Laja and Chris Goward are top dogs in the industry, and their blogs and social media presence can put you on the right track. 

Take courses, read books, attend seminars and conferences, and do what you do when you want to learn a new skill. When you feel equipped enough, freelancing sites like Upwork and Fiverr have jobs waiting for you

3. Search Engine Optimization  

There are more than 1.9 billion websites on the World Wide Web. Without search engines, it would have been pretty challenging to comb through this massive number to find the exact information you need. 

Those search engines are responsible for connecting the search intent with the user, with the right informations through keywords. People have questions, search engines provide answers.

The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is way how to optimize website and content to bring the website posts up in the search results.

From defining the structures and briefs for content writing and blog posts, to optimizing the technical part like speed and user-friendliness.

SEO marketers are simply assuring that the site is ranking well and have enough organic traffic to generate sales on the website.

Google is the most popular search engine, and it uses an algorithm to rank websites in terms of the quality of information.

Google logo in lights with headline: "There are worldwide around 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year on Google."

Average Annual Income – $72,674

It is important to remember that the annual income will vary depending on your skills and level of qualification. However, Glassdoor claims you can earn an average salary of $72,674 annually as a search engine optimization specialist. 

Scope 

The essence of applying search engine optimization techniques to your blog posts or website content is not only to rank high on Google’s search engine results. 

Overall, the aim is to improve customer satisfaction by providing everything they need in a single stop. When you answer questions already on your target user’s minds before they even ask them, you provide satisfaction that is beneficial to them and your site. 

Keyword research, writing briefs for writers, defining the structure of the site, internal link building and analytics. These are the main tasks an SEO specialist has to do on a daily basis.

Where to Get Started 

With 49 percent ROI, is organic search the best digital marketing channel used by many marketers worldwide.

No surprise, there are hundreds of SEO specialists offering their tips and tricks or even full guides packed in e-books for FREE.

Neil Patel, Brian Dean from backlinko or Blogs from well known tools like Ahrefs or SEM Rush, you can choose the one you like the best.

This SEO Guide from Google is something that gives you the most important informations about SEO from first hand.

Starting with basic principles like keyword research, on-site and off-site optimization, but also how to produce high quality content and some basic technical skills are just part of the skill set of a successful SEO specialist.

It is very helpful to know what ranking factors is Google using to define which site goes up in the position.

You can work with a team if you lack all the skills to become an independent search engine optimization specialist.

If you make you a good name in the industry, you can switch from this digital marketing side hustle to full time business like SEO agency – and earn lot more money.

4. Content Marketing 

Content marketing is creating content that doesn’t promote one particular brand, but provide informational content for free for specific target audience and hopes, that part of the people converts in to customers.

It is about to establish the company or brand as a trustworthy and competent specialist in the particular field and win the trust of potential leads.

How do you retain people that visit your client’s site? You provide entertaining content, which engages them, informs them, and creates trust between them and your brand. 

Ensure the information on your site is fresh and creates awareness. It is 2022, and you don’t need to focus on written content alone. You can try videos and podcasts, trending methods of spreading information. 

Average Annual Income – $56,359 

The average annual salary of a content marketer in the U.S. according to payscale.com is $56,359.

Scope

Content marketing aims to create loyal customers out of the target audience. Essentially, the purpose is to inform users about a product engagingly. 

Personalized marketing is more effective at converting leads into sales, and when a brand is looking for loyal customers, this is one way to get it. By providing the information people need about specific products or services, you can create trust between your brand and the user, which is what digital marketing aims to achieve. 

Research and content production consume the most of the time for content marketers.

Learn about your audience, knowing what are their questions to provide the answers, analyzing trends and topics.

Content production includes writing blog posts, emails, social media posts, but also video content or podcast structure.

Designing inbound marketing strategies, optimizing content for search engines and creating an editorial calendar complete the list of responsibilities.

Where to Get Started 

One of the significant ways to get into content creation in 2022 is to register on a popular video platform like TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube. 

Define your niche based on topic you like and start to interact with your audience.

Also, well known inbound marketing tool called HubSpot offers many free marketing courses where you can learn basic and more advanced strategies.

5. Social Media Marketing 

According to Oberlo, 57.6 percent of the world’s population uses social media. Therefore, digital marketing skills are a fantastic bonus. 

In a world where you can now do almost everything online, social media marketing is one of the best online marketing side hustle you can start from home.

Social media use is growing exponentially, and the industrial sector is beginning to take advantage of this new trend. This creates a need for people who understand consumer behavior and can use social media to promote content and sales. 

Consumer data will point you in the right marketing direction and help you promote your brand’s content in a way that generates interaction and sales. 

Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok, all the social media giants include analytics tool to help you understand your audience and navigate your content in the right direction.

A phone with Facebook app and headline: "The social media giant Facebook reported 2.93 billions monthly active users."

Average Annual Income – $55,314

You can make an average of $55,314 yearly, and remember, this is just a digital marketing side hustle. You have the potential to make even more if you dedicate the time and resources to learning and improving your skills. 

Firstly, you can “run” social media marketing side hustle as a service and earn based on hourly rate. But when you want to make real money, you can build your own brand.

While an average influencer on Instagram is making $31 per hour, the “bigger players” are earning over 15,000 dollars per month. I think this is a serious reason why you should consider this option if you want to start making real money with your marketing side hustle.

Scope 

The world relies heavily on information. It has been that way even before the advent of social media. Now that search engines and the World Wide Web exist, it is even easier to find the answers you need. 

This is where social media marketing comes in. It studies consumer data and behavior and determines, with the use of techniques and artificial intelligence, what the best marketing strategy is. 

The time you upload, type of content, and marketing platform are all important. 

Furthermore, social media marketing can also be used to gather consumer information which helps improve satisfaction with products and services. 

Your responsibilities include supervising the social media accounts for the brand you work with, staying atop trends, creating content and working with a copywriter, among other exciting tasks. 

Where to Get Started 

Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter are places a large population of users on the social media frequent. Therefore, they are the core areas social media marketers focus on. 

Generally, I love Instagram. It is the best platform where you can learn about social media marketing. And the reason is simple: thousands of influencers are posting valuable tips, tricks, and trends for free!

Additionally, you can go to well known free source of guides, YouTube or take some courses, watch, and read articles that help you grow your skillset. 

6. Social Media Advertisements 

Paid ads. That is the summary of what social media advertisement is all about. 

Social media ads may not be the heartthrob of the people, given that they pop up just about anywhere and disturb your internet escapades. 

However, they can also be powerful lead generators, which means they can help you lead your desired audience to your page

Average Annual Income – $53,528

Unfortunately, any reliable statistics regarding the average annual income are unknown yet. 

According to Ziprecruiter, an average annual salary for a Facebook ads specialist in the U.S. is $53,528.

But the amount you make depends on your investment, with returns often more significant, especially when the content is engaging. 

Anyway, if you search on Upwork for Facebook Ads specialist, you’ll find many guys with proven earning records asking over $100 per hour.

Scope 

Social media advertisement can be a powerful tool when used wisely. Create content that doesn’t seem like a bother but is engaging and perhaps even interactive, and you will generate your desired leads. 

Where to Get Started 

Social media: that’s where to get started. You need apps like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, and Snapchat. 

Learn how to use the analytic-tools of the social media like Facebook Business Manager.

Furthermore, you need to learn the different types of ads you can run on the network and how to use them. For example, LinkedIn offers 4 basic ad formats like Sponsored Content, Sponsored Messaging, Lead Gen Forms and Text and Dynamic Ads.

7. Pay per Click 

If you have a website where you offer products or services, you can use pay-per-click marketing to drive traffic to your shop or homepage. In this marketing technique, the advertiser pays a fee when the ad is clicked.

Pay per click model uses search engines to place the ads. You can see them once you put a keyword in a Google and you see results on the top marked with “Ad”.

Undoubtedly, the PPC advertising offers huge potential. Only in 2021, $144.8 billion was spent by companies from all around the world on search advertising.

Average Annual Income – $52,973

According to Indeed, the average annual income for a PPC specialist in the U.S. is $52,973.

Same as all other digital marketing hustles mentioned in this post, you can start as a freelancer or build your own brand and use this marketing model to boost sales on your website.

Scope

Here, you get paid between $1 to $10 for each click that is made on the ad. So, make the content as appealing and interactive as possible.

Pay per click is more of an affiliate marketing slash self-employed method of making money. You earn a portion, commission, for each click. 

Where to Get Started 

You need to learn about the ad networks like Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, YouTube or Facebook.

Google Ads is undoubtedly the most popular ad network, with billions of sites reached every day.

Targeting, click-through rate, keywords and how to develop PPC strategy are topics you have to get familiar with.

To repeat, social media, YouTube and online courses are the places you should start learning.

Also, complete PPC guides from sides like searchenginejournal.com are very helpful base of informations.

Getting Started with Digital Marketing 

The popularity of this field is raising extremely. Therefore, there are many free resources available that help you start immediately. Let’s follow this basic steps to get started with your dream digital marketing side hustle: 

Learn the Fundamentals 

PPC, SEO, Search engine marketing, social media, inbound marketing and email marketing are the fundamentals of digital marketing. Get familiar with the basics of these areas. 

Very helpful, but not required, is basic technical knowledge and web design. This will help you understand the background and see what is possible while creating the strategies.

Psychology behind marketing and how people make decisions, how to influence them and what are the main factors that motivate us to buy products or just download some materials are essential for every professional marketer.

Focus on One Digital Marketing Skill 

It can be tempting to master all the digital marketing skills to expand your opportunities.

However, you have to seek to become a specialist. And you can not become a specialist in many fields at once. Focus is the key.

Your value and so your income, depends not on how many experiences do you have with all the fields, but on how perfectly and efficiently you can solve problems either for your business or for your customers.

Read about all the options, but position your self as a specialist in particular field.

Get Enrolled in Certification Courses 

Certification courses ensure that you know everything you need to know about your chosen field. The best part is that you can take them at home, in your spare time and many of them for FREE.

As I have noted, HubSpot is offering many free courses incl. certifications. Google Fundamentals of Digital Marketing is also a perfect start with certification.

Practice with Marketing Tools 

Your next course of action, which you should make a habit, is to practice with marketing tools. HubSpot CRM, Salesmate, Flipsnack, and Whatagraph are examples of software that you can get familiar with. 

SocialBee is also a good marketing tool for social media marketing. 

Sign Up with Freelancing Platforms 

This is how you make a living from your desired digital marketing side hustle. You can either manage your blog or social media page to generate income or do it for a client through freelancing platforms like Upwork, Guru, Freelancer and Toptal. 

Apply for Internships and Jobs 

Alternatively, you can work as an intern for brick-and-mortar or virtual companies that need digital marketers. You can also apply for part-time digital marketing jobs if you believe you have the experience and expertise to land you an employment opportunity. 

FAQs

Is it hard to learn digital marketing? 

NO! If you are really interested to learn digital marketing, you can master it within a couple of months. The trend is your friend and many even experienced marketers need to constantly stay up to date. The best part is not only that you can learn everything from home, but also practicing all that stuff you’ve learn den wherever you are.

Unquestionably, it depends on your assimilation skills, even though you can make the learning process much more manageable. Consider taking a marketing course online or in college, or try an internship to learn the ropes. 

Read blog posts, watch videos, and look for content that simplifies learning. 

How many days will it take to learn digital marketing? 

Digital marketing may require you to develop a broad skill set. This can include web design, content writing, search engine optimization, and social media marketing. 

Again, the duration depends on your dedication and level of determination. You can learn in as little as two months, and it may take longer. 

Do I need a computer to learn digital marketing?

You don’t need a computer, even though one certainly makes learning easier. A laptop offers convenience if you want to learn about aspects like WordPress and HTML. 

But your phone is also great for streaming videos that help you grow your skills as a digital marketer in 2022. 

Conclusion  

Learning how to get into online marketing can help you increase your income in 2022. If you have got some spare time on your hands, instead of spending it scrolling, get paid instead. 

I have shown you seven digital marketing side hustles and strongly hope that one suits your lifestyle preferences and abilities. A social media side hustle is pretty manageable, and you only need an internet connection and determination to get started. 

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