Making an extra $100 a day through side hustles might seem out of reach for many people. So how did one side hustler earn over $10,000 in just 100 days?

Jaclyn “Jackie” Mitchell (@jaclynmitchell) set out to save for a down payment on a house by breaking a big goal into bite-sized daily targets.

By earning $100 every day over 100 days, she ended up netting a total of $10,972.

How’d she do it while working a full-time job?

By relentlessly testing quick-hitting remote side hustles, working in public to hold herself accountable, and opening herself up to unexpected income from building an audience.

Tune in to Episode 594 of The Side Hustle Show to learn:

how to break down big goals into small, daily actions
how to leverage communities for advice and accountability.
how to look for passive income opportunities
how consistency compounds over time

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Jackie’s Backstory

Jackie is no stranger to the side hustle game. She started strategically earning extra cash in college through sites like Swagbucks. At the time, she’d cash out earnings from promotional offers and simple activities to treat her boyfriend (now husband) to occasional nicer dinners.

While rewarding, those early side gig days didn’t push Jackie to fully commit to making side income a daily habit.

Fast forward to when Jackie and her husband were gearing up to buy their first home. They found themselves facing a $10,000 savings goal for their down payment fund.

Rather than find that big number daunting, Jackie broke it down into smaller goals. She sized her target to $100 per day, with the intent to hustle for 100 days straight. Even better, she decided to document the entire journey on her TikTok account.

The $100 a Day Challenge

When Jackie shared about her challenge on TikTok, she gained 50,000 likes overnight on the first video. Clear interest from the community upped the stakes—now she was committed not only to herself but to any followers seeking inspiration or proof that side hustling can stack up.

@jaclynmitchelll

the way I calculated wrong and didnt realize I hadn’t actually hit $100 until this morning when I did the voiceover 💀 guess I have a $6 worth of make-up work today! #budgeting #savingmoney #challenge

♬ original sound – jackie mitchell

Throughout the 100 days, Jackie provided ongoing transparency into what she was trying, how much she was making, little successes along the way, and occasional frustrations as well.

The motivation was part personal goal tracking, part public accountability, and part helpful education for anyone motivated enough to take notes.

Top Revenue Streams

Of all Jackie tested, a few key side hustles emerged as consistent contributors in making that $100 a day threshold doable:

Swagbucks

This popular rewards site ended up being one of Jackie’s go-to daily drivers thanks to their lucrative game testing offers. For hitting certain levels or milestones within mobile games, Swagbucks pays out handsomely.

One game may reward just $5 for an introductory level, but reaching the top tier could pay $160 or more! Jackie mentions a $218 payout for one game, which is not too shabby at all.

She notes a subreddit called r/SwagBucks as an invaluable resource here. The Swagbucks subreddit often features detailed guides on the best strategies to hit those top reward levels without spending real money on in-app purchases.

This allows earning decent chunks pretty easily. Jackie says she can just set the games to auto-roll and grind up levels while binge watching Netflix!

Prolific

Next up is Prolific, her favorite survey site because of its boosted hourly pay rates. Prolific pays participants to take part in research studies.

Studies range from quick 5-10 minute surveys to more in-depth questionnaires taking around 30 minutes. Thanks to their academic nature, hourly rates are higher than many survey sites.

In Jackie’s experience, she averaged $10–$30 a day on Prolific when there were open studies matching her demographics. The sign-up process involves a waitlist, however, as researchers want balanced pools of participants.

Check out our full Prolific review to learn more.

Focus Groups

In contrast to consistent money from surveys, focus groups represent infrequent but high-value side income. Groups discussing products, brands, etc. pay out $100 to $250 for just 1–2 hours of your opinions.

The limitation here is qualifying for relevant paid focus groups as they arise.

Sites like FocusGroup.com allow you to join not just online surveys but also through personal discussions, web chats, video diaries, product tests, telephone conversations, and more.

Check out our full FocusGroup.com review for more.

Over time, Jackie confirms building a nice bank of focus group checks every couple months. It’s so easy once you land a qualifying group!

My other top paid research picks:

User Interviews – Make $50-150/hr providing feedback on upcoming products. Full review here. 
Respondent – More of a tech and industry professional focus, but I’ve earned almost $400 here. Full Respondent review.
Rare Patient Voice – Patients and caregivers can support medical research and earn $100+ per hour. 

Data Annotation

If you’re willing to put in some serious hours, DataAnnotation offers pay ranging from $15 – $25 per hour. This involves training AI systems in various ways like editing, content flagging, grammar checks, and more.

It’s admittedly grueling work, but can be a good way to make money online for beginners.

Additional similar sites in this space include Remotasks and TaskVerse. Both await Jackie’s further testing in future side hustling adventures!

Check out our full Remotasks review to learn more.

Other Income Streams

Part of what makes Jackie’s story so compelling were the unexpected income streams unlocked along the way.

The beauty of documenting this entire challenge publicly became evident in the third income stream that emerged organically—her growing audience itself.

TikTok Creator Fund

As her TikTok following grew, she qualified for the platform’s Creator Fund, which pays users a small amount per view and traffic. Her daily recap videos provided helpful accountability… plus consistent ad revenue.

Brand Sponsorships

Brand sponsorships also started trickling in to have Jackie showcase or test products for fixed fees or free products. Dedicated review videos or subtle integrated mentions in her regular content let her easily earn a few hundred dollars.

User Generated Content

By having authentic creators like Jackie demonstrate real-life use of products, audiences find reviews more relatable than company marketing. Depending on factors like audience size, UGC posts can command $100 or more each.

Reselling Clothes

Beyond digital streams, Jackie cites reselling clothes as her effortless seasonal hustle. Listing items you already own on websites like Poshmark or Depop turns stagnant closet clutter into cash without upfront costs.

It takes more sourcing and time investments to make serious reselling money, though.

Jackie cautions that the incremental costs around inventory, shipping, and more make scaling selling activities tricky. Without expertise, reselling works better as a side supplement than primary hustle.

Amazon Storefront

Jackie created an Amazon associates storefront to earn affiliate commissions on a handful of recommended products. As her audience clicked through to buy items like her favorite heated blanket, this turned into a small passive income stream.

Other Hustles Tested

Jackie tried her hand successfully at quite a few other ideas you may have also seen online and wondered about:

Amazon Mechanical Turk – Amazon’s marketplace for quick online tasks pays very little.
Cash back apps – Fetch and Ibotta pay you to scan your grocery receipts, but won’t add up to much.
Instacart – Delivering groceries to others helps…if you can swipe orders lightning fast in a crowded market. Too much luck-based competition. Here’s our full Instacart shopper review to learn more.

A Day in the Life

At first, Jackie estimated needing 5+ hours per day to earn her $100 while juggling her regular full-time job. This included both active hustling time plus an hour or more editing footage and tracking challenge metrics.

But as certain earning channels became more automated, that number dropped to 2–3 hours a day toward the end. Passive income like TikTok ad share and sponsored content gave her breathing room.

When asked if she managed to get any sleep, Jackie laughs but confirms she remained committed to rest and sanity as well! Her background working multiple demanding jobs during college prepared her for this hustling sprint.

Through unwavering determination, leveraging pockets of time on lunch breaks or evenings to chip away at that $100 became almost second nature no matter how tired from a long day’s work.

Achieving Big Goals Through Small Steps

By pushing herself to stack $100 incremental wins day-by-day, Jackie proved large goals become reachable through small, consistent actions. Publicly posting the process also kept her accountable while attracting brand opportunities.

But most importantly, the transparency resonated hugely with her audience. Followers connected with seeing someone work through building earnings from square one without filters. They became invested in the human element by living the ups and downs with her.

What’s Next for Jackie?

Upon completing her initial challenge, Jackie gained many more TikTok followers as well as credibility via demonstrated proof. Rather than ramp up claims more and more, she’s chosen a more balanced path.

@jaclynmitchelll

snow calls for naps, I don’t make the rules! #budgeting #savingmoney #challenge #oneyearofextraincome

♬ original sound – jackie mitchell

Ongoing in the year ahead, Jackie makes sure to post regular updates on her income streams—both larger sums now from indirect sources as well as nitty-gritty daily workhorse side hustles requiring active hours invested.

Viewers can follow along day-by-day on TikTok as she’s committed to earn and document consistently.

By spotlighting various methods, answering follower questions, and reporting out earnings, Jackie leads by the same example that’s built such a strong foundation. She continues focusing on the core audience that related to her circumstances just recently.

If along the way partnerships or speaking opportunities stem from such a rapport, so be it. But Jackie strives to remain cautiously grounded against the trapping of many who perhaps misrepresented side hustle concepts through assuming an air of having “figured it all out.”

Follow Jackie on TikTok

In just 100 days, Jackie earned $10,972 through grit and determination. She offers inspiration that’s possible for regular folks without huge projects or followings already.

By being radically transparent about side hustles that work (and those lacking), she builds trust with viewers who can take away tangible ideas.

Now in her second year of documentation centered on earnings, Jackie continues balanced leadership. Join her ongoing journey by following @jaclynmitchell on TikTok.

The openness and care for her community that captivated huge early attention remain—perhaps the most important driver sustaining consistent growth beyond viral peaks alone.

Jackie’s #1 Tip for Side Hustle Nation

“Do your taxes.”

Episode Links

@jaclynmitchell
Swagbucks
r/SwagBucks
Prolific
FocusGroup.com
DataAnnotation
Remotasks
TaskVerse
Poshmark
Depop
Amazon Mechanical Turk
Fetch
Ibotta
Instacart

Looking for More Side Hustle Help?

Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.

What are some of the best, most realistic ways to make $5k a month?

While still slightly below the nationwide median income, earning $5000 a month (or $60,000 a year) is a great financial milestone to shoot for.

In this post, I’ll share the best ways to get it done as either an employee or an entrepreneur. The suggestions are based on:

Interviews with over 500 side hustlers and entrepreneurs
15+ years of my own side hustle experience
Feedback from the 50k+ member Side Hustle Nation community.

Ready? Let’s do it!

1. Get a Remote Job

FlexJobs is the leading work from home jobs site.

With over 50 career categories, FlexJobs has jobs ranging from entry-level to executive and freelance to full-time.

Unfortunately, you can’t filter by salary, but based on industry and experience you’ll find lots of options at that $60k per year or $5k per month level and above.

There is a nominal monthly fee to access their listings, but you’ll earn that back (and then some!) with one job.

2. Salesforce Consulting

Salesforce is a popular CRM (customer relationship management) software used by thousands of businesses and non-profits around the world. 

Where the $5,000 a month comes in is becoming a Salesforce admin professional or consultant. Even if you don’t have a technical background, entry-level certified Salesforce pros are landing salaries of $60,000-$70,000+. 

For example, Anita Smith was laid off during the pandemic, but took the opportunity to skill-up in a new career. After just a few months she landed a new Salesforce job at double her old salary! 

Check out this free challenge to see if a similar path is right for you:

3. Print on Demand

Print on demand is a “hybrid” product business because you’re selling physical goods but you never see or touch them. You don’t have any physical inventory to hold. You’re just uploading digital designs, which makes this a super low overhead business to start.

Heather Johnson of HeatherXStudio.com sells a wide variety of t-shirts and other products on Etsy. Each design is low risk to test out — she doesn’t have to buy the product until she has a paying customer!

When we connected, she was selling around $15,000 worth of clothes every month, which translated into $4,000 – $5,000 in profits.

4. Real Estate

Rental property investing has long been a popular side hustle and way to build long-term wealth. We can all grasp the basics:

Buy a property
Rent it out
Profit on the spread between the rent and the monthly expenses

For example, my friend Dustin Heiner owns a portfolio of rental properties and was able to retire in his 30s from the cash flow.

But it can take a while to get to that $5k a month mark. If you profit $250 per property per month, it will take 20 to get there. If you profit $500 per property per month, you’d only need 10 houses. 

Make a goal to buy one a year, and you can completely change your financial future in just a decade.

Now to be fair, the road to real estate riches is paved with burnt-out landlords sick of dealing with problem tenants, vacancies, and unexpected repairs.

As an alternative, you might take a look at a platform like Arrived, which lets you invest in cash-flowing rentals for as little as $100.

The company pools money to buy rental properties, manages them, and then distributes the cash flow every month.

This is a great way to make money without leaving the house.

5. Reselling Items

One of the fastest ways to make extra money is the age-old business model of “buy low, sell high.”

Stacy Gallego is a master of this, earning several thousand dollars a month from her part-time product flipping business. She sources undervalued inventory nearby, and then taps into eBay’s audience of 135 million potential buyers.

Among her favorite places to source are:

Yard sales
Thrift stores
Facebook marketplace
Local buy/sell apps (like Offerup.com)

Some of her profitable flips include:

a motorcycle side car
a collectible skateboard
several Sleep Number beds!

Related: Here are some of the best items to flip for a profit.

To learn more about this business, Stacy recommended checking out Flea Market Flipper. Here’s a free training they put together on how to get started.

6. Reverse Logistics Reseller

If the needle-in-the-haystack search for profitable inventory doesn’t sound like fun, here’s an easier option.

As a part-time Sharetown rep, you’ll pick up gently-used furniture returns from direct-to-consumer brands.

Since the items aren’t new, the companies can’t really take them back and resell them — but you can. For example, Chris Torres reported earning $150-400 per item.

And the cool part is the inventory doesn’t cost you anything until it sells.

Check out our full Sharetown review to learn more.

7. Buy a Business

Business owners are retiring every day, they really only have two options: shut the business down or try to sell it.

Shutting it down would mean walking away from potentially $100,000+ of equity, so many opt to sell.

Where the side hustle comes in is on the buying side. And buying a business that’s already profitable is way less risky than starting one completely from scratch.

For example, Hannah Ingram bought a self-service car wash in Tennessee. Even better, she negotiated a seller financing sale so she was able to close with no money down. (She paid for it from the cash flow of the business.)

After taking ownership, she set out to improve the operation and now earns around $5k a month — in exchange for about 30 minutes of work a day.

 Sites that list businesses for sale include:

BizBuySell
LoopNet
Crexi

With SBA financing, you can acquire a profitable business with as little as 10% down.

8. Digital Activity Guides

Jodi Carlson has spent more than two decades of her life involved with Girl Scouts—first as a scout, then as a troop leader.

The magic happened when she began to transfer some of her dedication and passion for the topic onto a website. She posted her troop’s activities and soon enough, other scout leaders discovered the site and started reaching out with questions.

Jodi created digital activity guides for specific badges and started selling them on Teachers Pay Teachers and her own site. When we spoke, she was bringing in $5k a month on the side from her day job. 

9. Self Publishing

All of my self-publishing experience has been in the non-fiction space, and I’ll admit the $5k months are few and far between.

However, if you love to write, this could be a great side hustle option for you. For example, Derek Murphy’s book portfolio brings $5k a month, mainly in the young adult fantasy genre.

Derek started out editing books and designing book covers while completing his Masters and PhD in literature. Having an interest in reading fiction and wanting to get away from client work, Derek started writing fiction books.

When comparing fiction to non-fiction, Derek says, “there is a lot more demand, and it’s possible to make a lot more money.” 

10. Consulting

Is there a particular software, skill, or process you’re a pro at? Other businesses pay people like you to accelerate their growth.

According to long-time consultant Jonathan Stark, the key to your first $5k as a consultant lies in finding an expensive problem, and solving it. 

Jonathan’s a pro at finding these expensive problems, having run a successful online consulting business for years, focusing on mobile-ready web development.

11. Tutoring

Tutoring and test prep is more than a billion dollar a year industry!

You can start your own tutoring business to earn extra cash and help students at the same time. Bonus points if you were a decent student or have some subject matter expertise!

For example, Matt Fuentes charges $100/hour for remote college admissions test prep tutoring, and reported earning $1,000 a week on the side from his teaching job. At that rate, he’s working just 10 hours a week with students, so if you have more time to tutor, you could easily get this to $5,000 a month or more.

12. Unconventional Rentals

I love business models where you can get paid over and over again from something you buy once. One of my favorite examples of that is Steve Nadramia’s portable hot tub rental business.

When we spoke, he’d built a “fleet” of 25+ hot tubs that he rented out on a weekly or monthly basis. The business was generating thousands of dollars a month in profit, on the side from his day job as a teacher.

Other rental ideas include photo booths, bounce houses, or even extra space around your house.

13. Car Detailing

A mobile detailing side hustle is a great way to make some extra money on the side, especially if you’re a “car guy.” Not only can you choose your own hours and work around other commitments, but the job itself is simple yet rewarding.

With the right set-up and some basic knowledge of car care, anyone can get started in this side hustle.

Typical rates are $200-400 per car, and you can stack 2-3 jobs up on a Saturday and make pretty good money. For example, Josh Belk reported earning up to $6,000 a month with the detailing business he started with his brother.

14. Build a Helpful Website

If you enjoy writing, blogging is also another viable way to earn $5000 a month. I started blogging as a creative outlet, but it’s turned into a money-making venture for me.

It’s an awesome business because I can do it from anywhere and have complete control over the time I put into it.

In fact, one of my sites was earning around $5k a month for years before I sold it in 2020.

Website income depends on your topic and the amount of traffic you can attract to your site. Delilah Orpi, a former teacher in Florida, reported earning $8,000 a month from her blog about curly hair.

She monetized her site with a combination:

advertising
affiliate partnerships
her own products

Next Step: My free 6-part video course will walk you through how to set up your site for less than you might think.

15. Teach Online Classes

Several Side Hustle Nation members have built an extra income stream teaching others what they know.

One platform to sell your courses is Udemy, a peer-to-peer marketplace with over 50 million students.

For example, Teresa Greenway is a mother of 10 who went from working part-time in a bakery to making $5k a month doing what she loves – baking and teaching others how to bake the perfect sourdough bread.

Teresa has built a really cool business around this niche at NorthwestSourdough.com.

While Teresa mostly tapped into a hobby market, Rob Cubbon created a series of business-focused courses on topics like:

Graphic design
WordPress security
Photoshop
and more

Is there a topic your friends or colleagues are always asking you for help with? Maybe you could package up that knowledge into a helpful online course. 

How to Make $5k a Month: Your Turn

What’s the best way to make $5k a month? 

Of course the answer depends on your unique skills, interests, and goals. 

My hope is the ideas on this list sparked some curiosity and inspiration to try something new and take action!

Serious About Making Extra Money?

Start Your Free $500 Challenge. My free 5-day email course shows you how to add $500 to your bottom line.
Join the free Side Hustle Nation Community. The free Facebook group is the best place to connect with other side hustlers and get your questions answered.
Download The Side Hustle Show. My free podcast shares how to make extra money with actionable weekly episodes.