Summary
Highlights
This side hustle involves creating a physical product and selling it in bulk to businesses like hotels, cafes, or offices, in addition to direct-to-consumer sales. Claude AI acts as a manager, handling the business aspects like finding buyers, crafting pitches, writing product descriptions, and setting prices. An example cited is Jon Pandolfi, a ceramic artist who scaled his business to over $6.6 million yearly by securing bulk orders from hotels and restaurants. Claude can also assist in designing products and marketing them to the right audience.
This involves buying items cheaply from thrift stores, yard sales, or estate sales, and then reselling them online for a profit. Claude AI acts as an instant appraiser, identifying valuable items, estimating their worth, and suggesting the best platforms for selling. It can also write compelling product listings, titles, descriptions, and keywords for optimal visibility. Jocelyn Elizabeth, a new mom, built a $5.2 million online marketplace called Knickknacks after discovering the profitability of reselling a $5 lamp for $70.
Building a YouTube channel around a skill or topic you know and teaching it offers two main benefits: it builds an audience that can buy from you, and the channel itself can generate income through sponsorships, ads, or affiliate marketing. Claude AI can assist with niche selection, video ideas, scriptwriting, and maintaining consistency. Examples include Isaiah Harris, who earned $100,000 monthly teaching singing, and Nurse Jen, who makes a full-time income by sharing medical advice.
This hustle involves getting paid to answer questions about a subject you know well. Professionals like mechanics, nurses, or IT specialists can join platforms like JustAnswer or set up their own service. Claude AI serves as a research partner, helping to answer complex questions and expanding the volume of people you can assist. Chris Pyle, a mechanic, made over $170,000 annually by answering car questions online. Alternatively, you can create YouTube videos answering these questions, as demonstrated by Scotty Kilmer, who reportedly earned millions sharing car advice on his channel.
Operating a simple local service business such as power washing, window cleaning, or lawn care is reliable due to limited local competition and low startup costs. Claude AI can help generate customer leads by setting up Google listings, creating ad copy, developing door-knocking scripts, and providing instant quote texts. Joel Justice started a six-figure power washing business with minimal equipment. A YouTube channel like 'Drain Addict' shows how recording everyday service work can generate significant AdSense revenue.
This side hustle involves identifying a specific, annoying problem and building a simple app to solve it. Users pay a small fee to download or use it monthly. Claude AI can write the actual code, even if you lack programming experience, making it accessible. The key is to solve a very niche problem to minimize competition. Steven Crowder, with no prior coding experience, built 'Puff Count,' an app that helps people quit vaping, generating over $40,000 monthly.
UGC involves filming short, casual videos for brands using or talking about their products. Brands then use these videos as their own ads, meaning you don't need a large social media following. Claude AI can provide scripts and hooks for these videos. Kelly Rockline earned over $142,000 annually from UGC, and Chris Barr utilizes UGC while also running a YouTube channel about it. To start, pick products you enjoy, have Claude write a script for a sample video, film it on your phone, and then use Claude to help pitch brands and find UGC marketplaces.
This involves coaching people through a challenge you have successfully overcome, such as paying off debt, getting in shape, or switching careers. Claude AI can help structure your experience into a coaching system, complete with steps, lessons, and worksheets. This can be offered as one-on-one, group coaching, or a course. Bernadette Joy, who paid off $300,000 in debt, built a money coaching business earning $279,000 annually. YouTube can also serve as a powerful tool to attract inbound clients, even with a small subscriber base, as demonstrated by Carla, who closed a $100,000 contract from YouTube with only 1,500 subscribers.