Today’s economic landscape presents a paradox: While there is rising inflation, stagnant wages, and increasing uncertainty in the job market, there’s also a growing group of individuals who are cashing in big with online businesses that often start as humble side hustles.
So, if you want to join the winning side of this current environment, it’s entirely possible with the right knowledge and drive directed towards the right opportunity.
Of all the different entrepreneurial opportunities on offer today, digital marketing stands out as a top candidate: The global size of the digital advertising market is estimated at around $700 billion in 2024, and it will continue to grow at an expected compound annual growth rate of 11-15% through 2030 and beyond.
In this guide, we’ll go over why digital marketing can be a great side hustle or full-time income opportunity for individuals of all knowledge and experience levels. If you’re just starting out, we’ll also give the exact steps you need to take to lay the foundation for a successful digital marketing business.
A brief overview of digital marketing
So, what is digital marketing? In short, it's when businesses of all sizes promote their products or services online. These businesses often outsource this type of work to agencies or individual freelancers, meaning that with the right skills and a well-framed offering, you can position yourself as an ideal candidate to serve these marketing needs.
Keep in mind that although the market for digital marketing is established and growing, you’ll still need to improve your skills and refine your offering in order to stand out and get paid. So, later in this guide, we’ll go over tips on how to stand out as a top candidate that companies want to hire.
This guide also includes a list of 15 opportunities that you can start today to cash in on digital marketing as a side hustle or full-time business.
Is digital marketing a good side hustle?
Let’s take a look at why the overall market and opportunity for digital marketing is an excellent way to make money for those with the right skills:
Established and growing demand
Businesses of all sizes, local and online, understand the need for an online presence, and you can offer a modern digital marketing strategy as a skilled provider of such services.
2024 saw a large increase in overall spending on online advertising and digital marketing services, and this demand trend is expected to remain strong and continue in 2024 and beyond.
High income potential
Digital marketing is proving to be increasingly essential for growth and thriving against competition. With more businesses understanding this, they’re willing to invest significant amounts in these services.
Even as an entry-level digital marketer, you can charge $20-$40 per hour, and as you gain experience, you can bill $50+ per hour. Additionally, by packaging and productizing these services with either an agency or a digital product, you can also earn a high income with the potential to outsource and automate for passive income.
Flexibility
Unlike a regular 9-5, as a digital marketer, you can set your own schedule, giving you the freedom to work within your own hours. As long as you deliver on deadlines and perform as promised, you can generally work whatever hours you want on your own time, giving you freedom and flexibility that most jobs don’t offer.
However, remember that with this flexibility comes the responsibility and accountability to create a schedule that works best for both you and your client, who you still need to communicate consistently with.
Location independence
The nature of digital marketing work is entirely online, so it’s possible to work with clients who you never meet in person. This allows you the location independence to work from anywhere, offering the opportunity to become a digital nomad.
This location freedom combined with the ability to serve clients globally allows an abundance of opportunity to create a side hustle or business that can fuel your dream life in 2025 and beyond once you’ve gained an understanding of the market and the skills needed to effectively service it.
The current state of digital marketing in 2025
Even if you’re starting from scratch today, the statistics show an established and growing demand and indicate you’re still early if you start now as a digital marketer.
To summarize the current state of digital marketing and how to serve it, traditional marketing methods and strategies that used to work such as PPC, SEO, and paid advertising are evolving rapidly, with many losing the effectiveness they once had.
In order to succeed as a marketer in today’s environment, you need to learn about and adapt to emerging trends. Two of the most significant shifts we’re seeing are the integration of AI in marketing and the growing influence and unique behavior of Gen Z consumers.
The AI revolution has transformed the digital marketing landscape and the services that you can offer. These now include automation and bulk content creation with AI tools such as video generators and chatbots, which continue to improve in quality and effectiveness.
While some business owners are learning about and implementing these tools themselves, most are far behind and are scrambling to look for AI experts. Learning about the field and advertising yourself as someone who can service this need can give you a profitable edge.
In terms of demographics and target audience, many business owners are perplexed by the consumer behaviors of Gen Z and how to relate to them. The Gen Z audience doesn’t fall for the same advertising and strategies that worked just a few years ago, so there’s a growing demand for digital marketers who know how to cater to this increasingly important audience.
So, start with the knowledge that framing yourself as an AI expert and someone who can speak to Gen Z will put you far ahead of the competition.
15 digital marketing side hustles you can start today
To get you started, let’s dive in with a list of specific services and products that you can offer to start making money with digital marketing as soon as possible:
1. Social media management services
Every business today knows that having a social media presence is no longer optional; it’s mandatory to compete and thrive in the modern digital marketing environment.
In addition to offering organic growth and influencer collaboration strategies, get familiar with creating and managing effective ad campaigns. With overall social media ad spending nearing $200 billion in 2024 alone, businesses are looking to combine high ROAS (return on ad spend) ad campaigns with effective organic media growth to improve their social media presence and profitability.
Quick tips for getting started:
- Master 2-3 major social media platforms (TikTok, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram)
- Learn content creation and scheduling tools
- Get basic branding and graphic design skills (utilize Canva)
- Build a portfolio with case studies
Income potential:
- Entry-level side hustle: $500-$1,000/month for 1-3 clients
- Experienced: $2,000-$5,000/month for 1 client
- Agency scale: $7,000-$10,000+/month with multiple clients
2. Content writing or copywriting
Even with AI taking over basic copywriting and content, there’s still a strong demand for the authentic human voice. This demand might even get stronger as companies and readers continue to see the creative and expressive limitations of AI-generated content.
To stand out and charge competitive rates, continue to craft and refine your writing in a way that offers obvious value for your clients. Creating copy that converts readers to customers and aligns with your client’s brand voice will keep you relevant.
Quick tips for getting started:
- Study copywriting fundamentals in addition to customer psychology and good storytelling
- Learn SEO best practices
- Read sales letters, landing pages, and other conversion-focused copy
- Build a portfolio of samples in niches that you can write confidently in
Income potential:
- Entry-level side hustle: $200-1,000/month from writing blogs, product descriptions, or emails
- Intermediate: $1,500-$3,000/month for website copy and consistent blog posts, which can include content planning
- Expert: $5,000-$10,000/month or more, specializing in technical writing and conversion-based copy
3. SEO services and consulting
With the algorithms of search engines continuing to evolve, the demand for businesses wanting to stay on top of the latest for what it takes to rank among the top search results remains steady in 2025 and beyond.
While creators will always be at the mercy of the latest search engine updates, getting content to rank starts with an understanding of who the target audience is and how to best serve their needs. Combining content strategy with technical best practices will allow you to survive and thrive no matter what the search engines throw at you.
Quick tips for getting started:
- Consider going through a basic up-to-date SEO course to get your fundamentals down
- Learn how to use keyword and content planning tools such as SEMRush and Moz
- Join a community to stay up to date with the latest
Income potential:
- Entry-level side hustle: $500-$1,500/month doing keyword research, content planning, and basic optimization
- Intermediate: $2,000-$5,000/month performing audits and technical SEO help and consulting
- Expert: $7,000-$15,000/month working as a lead SEO or running an agency or consulting firm
4. AI services
The explosion of AI tools on top of the inherent power and capability of major LLMs such as ChatGPT and Claude AI has left many business owners in a state of FOMO and overwhelm. They’re often too occupied to learn how to best use to grow their business, namely with digital marketing.
By framing yourself correctly and leveraging the full power of these tools, this can be one of the most lucrative digital marketing side hustles to get involved in at this moment.
Quick tips for getting started:
- Try out as many AI tools and LLMs as you can, including ChatGPT, Claude, Midjourney, and specific tools that you find being spoken about on LinkedIn or Twitter
- Improve at prompt engineering
- Create case studies that show the ROI in terms of both time and money from AI implementation
Income potential:
- Entry-level side hustle: $1,000-$3,000/month offering basic AI implementation or services
- Intermediate: $4,000-$8,000/month with comprehensive AI strategy, automations, and consulting
- Expert: $10,000-$20,000/month+ with high-ticket consulting and high ROI, enterprise-level or bulk services
5. Paid advertising campaign management
Today’s advertising landscape is more competitive on just about every platform compared to the early days of such ads, and with more business owners learning that it’s harder to generate high ROI ad campaigns on their own, the demand for those who create and manage paid ad campaigns is stronger than ever.
Success in this field comes from understanding not just the technical aspects of ad platforms but also audience psychology and conversion optimization. Companies are desperately seeking anyone with a proven track record that shows consistently profitable campaigns through multiple mediums and platforms.
Quick tips for getting started:
- Consider getting formally certified through a course or Google Ads certification
- Learn how to create and optimize landing pages
- Partner with creatives or learn how to make high-converting ads
Income potential:
- Entry-level side hustle: $500-$2,000/month managing multiple small business campaigns
- Intermediate: $2,500-$5,000+/month with established clients and proven results
- Expert: $10,000-$20,000+/month running an agency and managing high-spend or enterprise accounts
6. UGC services
In recent years, we’ve seen a further evolution of influencer marketing to include more relatable creators who make user-generated content (UGC), which is sometimes more persuasive than shills from well-known names.
Helping brands find and effectively direct individual UGC creators is a segment of digital marketing that’s just getting started and is set to grow in the coming years.
Quick tips for getting started:
- Consider trying to get UGC gigs on your own to learn how it works
- Learn how to edit short-form videos efficiently
- Study successful UGC campaigns in your target niche
Income potential:
- Entry-level side hustle: $500-$1,500/month creating basic UGC content on your own
- Intermediate: $2,000-$4,000/month managing multiple creators as a UGC agency
- Expert: $5,000-$10,000+/month as an established agency running comprehensive, high-conversion, and niche-targeted campaigns
7. Email marketing services
Although new direct-to-consumer marketing methods such as Telegram broadcast channels are emerging as worthy competition to email marketing, there’s still a strong demand for those who know how to craft and manage email campaigns.
Succeeding as an email marketer is more than just learning how to write persuasive copy, it’s about having a strategy that helps to foster brand loyalty first so sales come naturally and effortlessly.
Quick tips for getting started:
- Sign up for various email campaigns from targeted brands and pay attention to how they flow and how persuasive they are
- Get familiar with multiple email marketing platforms and settle on one that you are comfortable with
- Learn about technical aspects surrounding email deliverability
Income potential:
- Entry-level side hustle: $750-$1,500/month managing basic email campaigns or writing individual emails
- Intermediate: $2,000-$5,000/month with full-service email marketing services
- Expert: $7,000-$10,000+/month with proven results and working with high-revenue brands
8. Marketing automation services
The demand for marketing automation has accelerated greatly thanks to AI, and a large number of business owners are seeking experts in this field to help streamline their operations.
Effective automation is highly sought-after, as it’s more technical and high-touch than other marketing services. So, while it will take some time to learn how to implement and execute, you can charge fairly high rates. This makes it one of the more lucrative digital marketing side hustles or businesses.
Quick tips for getting started:
- Take time to learn different tools and platforms such as Zapier, Make, and HubSpot, and how they can all be integrated
- Learn how to incorporate AI into your workflow with these platforms
- Build case studies that show time and money saved in previous jobs
Income potential:
- Entry-level side hustle: $1,500-$3,000/month setting up simple but effective automations
- Intermediate: $4,000-$9,000/month setting up comprehensive automation strategies and consulting
- Expert: $10,000-$20,000+/month implementing complex systems for larger companies with an agency and offering high-ticket consulting
9. Digital marketing strategy consulting
If you’re a skilled and experienced all-around marketer who has experience with 3 or more services in this guide, you can offer services as a digital marketing strategy consultant.
Companies are happy to pay premium rates for consultants who can help them create and execute a marketing plan that works best for their brand and its current goals.
Quick tips for getting started:
- Build a portfolio of case studies that show your success with multiple marketing channels and methods; this can include previous employment
- Learn to create and pitch comprehensive marketing plans
- Take time to understand business owners and their unique needs
- Consider focusing on specific industries that you’re familiar with
Income potential:
- Entry-level side hustle: $2,000-$3,000/month with hourly consulting
- Intermediate: $4,000-$8,000/month from a growing base of established clients
- Expert: $10,000-$20,000+/month with high-ticket consulting combined with selling courses or webinars
10. Web analytics and data analysis
For those who love numbers and data, frame yourself as an expert data and web analyst who can help companies understand their digital performance.
The good thing about this digital marketing side hustle is that it can be quite lucrative, even part-time, as only businesses that have reached a certain level of revenue will consider hiring such a service.
Quick tips for getting started:
- Master the latest version of Google Analytics and get familiar with other industry-specific analytics platforms such as SEMRush and Ahrefs
- Learn data visualization tools such as Zoho in addition to having a high level of fluency in Excel and spreadsheets
Income potential:
- Entry-level side hustle: $1,500-$4,000/month providing one-off consulting and analytics reports
- Intermediate: $4,000-$7,000/month with companies on retainer and providing comprehensive reports while helping execute strategy
- Expert: $9,000-$15,000+/month managing enterprise-level campaigns and high spend clients
11. Content strategist
In its simplest form, content strategy can come down to schedules and sticking to an execution plan. However, with more easy-to-use tools that handle these basic duties, you’ll need to be more strategic if you want to offer services as a content strategist in 2025 and beyond.
Good content strategists will combine creativity with analytics specific to their client’s market and business model so that owners can benefit from the high ROI of well-made organic content.
Quick tips for getting started:
- Learn the fundamentals of content creation and marketing, focusing on low-cost and organic methods
- Get familiar with different automation tools, including AI
- Pay attention to what successful businesses in your target industry are doing in terms of content
Income potential:
- Entry-level side hustle: $500-$1,500/month developing basic content strategies
- Intermediate: $2,000-$5,000/month implementing automations and helping with content creation
- Expert: $6,000-$8,000+/month running an agency and executing complex campaigns for profitable businesses
12. Influencer marketing management
With more regulations in this area and a shift in consumer awareness and behavior, influencer marketing requires more finesse than it has in previous years.
However, since it’s still proven to generate high ROI compared to traditional ads, business owners are still looking for influencers as well as individuals who can find and manage them to produce profitable campaigns.
Quick tips for getting started:
- Learn how to discover and vet industry-specific influencers
- Understand basic market rates and how to negotiate with influencers or their management
- Build a database of reliable influencers that you have past results with that can be showcased to clients
Income potential:
- Entry-level side hustle: $500-$1,000/month managing simple campaigns
- Intermediate: $2,000-$4,000/month gaining consistent clients and reliable influencers
- Expert: $10,000-$15,000+/month running an influencer agency and carrying out high-ticket and profitable campaigns
13. Digital course creation
The demand for education in new areas such as AI and cryptocurrency trading continues to rise.
Creators of courses to serve such needs are profiting, with some individuals turning what starts as a simple side hustle into a full-time, profitable business generating passive income.
Quick tips for getting started:
- Conduct thorough market research to ensure there is demand in your area of expertise that you can fill
- Start small to prove the market, perhaps first with consulting or creating an ebook before taking the time to make a fully fleshed-out course
- Focus on building a community around your content and providing free value to establish and grow your audience
Income potential:
- Entry-level side hustle: $500-$2,000/month selling an ebook or a basic course to a small but loyal audience that converts
- Intermediate: $4,000-$7,000/month from selling consistently to an established and growing target audience
- Expert: $20,000-$50,000+/month selling high-ticket courses at scale to a large and loyal audience
14. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a proven way to make money online and is one of the most common first ways that entrepreneurs get started making their very first online dollar.
As an affiliate marketer, you get paid a commission to successfully promote other company’s products. Since you only get paid per sale, you should gain a high degree of familiarity with the product and its audience before taking the time to promote it.
Quick tips for getting started:
- Check the terms and conditions of affiliate programs you’re interested in, including eligibility
- Learn a diverse set of marketing channels and methods that you can apply to your chosen product
- Pick a niche that you’re knowledgeable about and a product you’re interested in or have used yourself
Income potential:
- Entry-level side hustle: $100-$500/month when you first find an audience that converts
- Intermediate: $1,500-$3,000/month gaining traction and diversifying with platforms like Amazon Associates and TikTok Shop
- Expert: $10,000-$20,000+/month with high volume, multiple channels, and organic and paid methods, often also owning a high-traffic website or large social media page
15. Webinar hosting
When executed correctly, webinars can be an excellent tool that can be used for lead generation or packaged and sold as private access information. The key to success is combining marketing strategy and tasteful hype with a compelling event that has a clear goal.
Businesses are noticing they could be missing out on connecting with audiences this way, and you could help them change that. You could also create and run webinars on your own to help grow or monetize a personal brand.
Quick tips for getting started:
- Check out which markets webinars are most relevant in
- Decide how to monetize and frame your specific webinar
- Consider hosting webinars yourself before offering services to other business owners
Income potential:
- Entry-level side hustle: $500-$1,000/month hosting occasional webinars
- Intermediate: $2,500-$5,000/month with consistent webinars combined with related client work and consulting
- Expert: $10,000-$15,000+/month with high-ticket webinars and regular corporate clients
Steps for starting your digital marketing side hustle
Now that you have a list of ideas to cash in on the growing economy of independent digital marketers, here are some actionable steps that you can take to get your online earnings going:
1. Choose a specialty
Pick a service that aligns with your skills and interests as your specialty. If you don’t have much professional experience, consider starting one with a lower barrier to entry such as UGC or affiliate marketing.
Data analysis and automations in particular are highly competitive, and companies will favor seasoned individuals with a track record and more relevant experience. You can always get started on these paths and learn if it’s your goal in the future, but don’t enter these fields right away if you lack the experience that the competition has.
2. Set up your online presence
As a digital marketer, simply having an online presence isn’t enough; it’s crucial to sell yourself professionally so clients can be confident you can do the same for them.
In addition to a well-designed personal website, setting up your own whop can be a great way not just to showcase your brand and offering, but also open up other monetization methods such as selling a course, private forums, and more.
3. Build and showcase portfolio
Even if you don’t have paying clients yet, create a portfolio of any relevant projects. Get experience as quickly as you can, and showcase your efforts and results as soon as you get them.
Start with personal projects that you can turn into a case study and offer free or discounted work to people you know, so you become a compelling candidate ASAP.
4. Actively market
Once you have a portfolio and an online presence set up, you can’t just sit there and hope people find you—you’re a digital marketer after all. Finding what works for you in terms of marketing can easily translate to services that you can offer to clients. You can even use your personal promotional methods as case studies that prove the efficacy of your methods.
5. Scale from a side hustle and a full-time income
Everyone says that your first online dollar is the hardest, so if you’ve managed to get clients as a digital marketer consistently even as a side hustle, this means you have the potential to transition to a full-time income.
As you gain confidence and testimonials, you should gradually increase your rates and client base. To reach a full-time income, you’ll need to figure out a way to scale beyond fulfilling all of your services yourself. Expanding to an agency is the most common route to scale, but be prepared for the increased workload and responsibility that come with such a venture.
Tips to make the most money with a digital marketing business
Carrying out the previous steps can bring you income, but if you’re serious and want to earn top dollar with your digital marketing business, consider these pro tips that the most profitable people in this realm are using to cash in big:
1. Listen to feedback
Working with clients is like any other relationship, so listening to feedback and acting on relevant suggestions is the best way to establish and grow trust with both existing and future clients. Having high trust is directly correlated with your reputation, which has a big impact on your bottom line.
Additionally, listening to feedback can help point towards emerging market trends or behaviors, so don’t be too stubborn or rigid to change what you’re doing even if it worked previously. You’ll still need to practice judgment to understand whether or not feedback is client-specific or if it points to the need for a broader change.
2. Establish a good marketing system
As a digital marketer, you’ll gain credibility, experience, and business growth with a proven system that attracts and converts new clients. Continue to refine your approach, combining different methods and tools such as content marketing across various platforms in addition to sponsorships or paid ads to improve your reach.
Be sure to document what works along the way, learn by analyzing data, and consider using AI to help automate workflows. Having this skill set not only will improve your personal business internally but can also improve the quality of your services.
3. Stay on top of market trends
Part of the reason that business owners are willing to pay a premium for dedicated digital marketing experts is because of the rapid pace at which the sector moves.
Be sure to stay on top of the absolute latest trends to stand out and charge premium rates. Stay educated by reading industry-specific blogs, news, and forums.
If you’re serious about becoming a top performer, consider joining a curated private community. On Whop, you'll find communities on many topics, from leveraging the power of social media like a pro to operating a high-level agency and more.
4. Consider productizing your services
No matter what services you’re offering, you can package them as an ebook or a course to teach people how to DIY or how to start this sort of hustle by themselves.
Productizing your services into digital products is a more scalable way to eventually earn a full-time income, and unlike other methods like charging a higher hourly rate or scaling to an agency, you have the potential to earn more without needing to sell more of your time to earn more money.
While it takes time to flesh out and test your initial product idea to make sure there’s a product market fit, once your digital product is made, you will benefit from all of the conveniences that this type of product has, including high-profit margins, ease of fulfillment, and potential for recurring and passive income.
Launch your digital marketing side hustle with Whop
Are you inspired and ready to capture the established and growing opportunity of making money online as a digital marketer? Picking the right online platform is crucial, and Whop is a top choice.
On the platform, you can set up your very own customizable corner of the internet—a whop—and power it with everything from forums and video calls to private communities and more.
You can set it up entirely for free and sell paid access right away. Best of all, once you’ve made your whop, you’ll have a global audience for digital products through Whop's marketplace.
So, if you have an idea and just a few minutes of your time, head to Whop and get one step closer to making your first online dollar today.
