698: Reacting to Reddit Side Hustles

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1:20In this episode, we're running through some of my favorite and some of the most unique side hustles that I've come across on Reddit. and to help me do it is a longtime listener and side hustle expert in her own right, Whitney Bonds. Welcome to the Side Hustle Show. Hey, Nick, I'm so happy to be here. You bet. So how this will work is I'm going to bring up a Reddit side hustle. We'll get Whitney's reaction on it. And the first one that I want to share is it says how I make somewhat passive income on YouTube without going viral. So I'll see if I can bring this up on the screen here, but the idea was tutorial-based YouTube content, how to do fill in the blank.

1:58And this is where some of my best performing videos, like some of the videos with the longest shelf life have come from. And I know you've had some experience in this space as well. Yeah. So when I saw this, I literally thought that the guys stole what I wrote somewhere along the way, because this is literally what I do. So I know for a fact that this works a hundred percent. So this is all about just creating tutorial style content for YouTube. And it lives on and it really is passive so that we do it once and it can live on for years. Like I have videos right now. You can search this how to make money selling dog treats.

2:31And you want to find my video at the very top. And I did that over three years ago. And so I have a course I'm promoting in that video. And so this is really passive income. So when people are searching for how to make money selling dog treats, My video is the first one they see. So they click on it and they watch it. I answer the question, how do you do it? But I also leave them with more information on how this woman made over$4 ,000 in a month doing it. And so then they want to learn more. They click on her course and they purchased it. And I earned a commission. So this is, I would say, 100 % a legit passive income that you can do on YouTube.

3:07You had another one that was in the LLC space? Yeah. So one of the things that I do, I never don't know what I should talk about on YouTube. So I look at my competitors to say like, what have they done that has done well that I could do? And so I saw this guy had a video and it was in 2022. So it was an older video. It was about how to start an LLC. And it was in 2022 and it got over 700 ,000 views. So I was like, oh my gosh, this is obviously a topic people are interested in. Let me try and do something like this. And since I did this in 2024, so I just said, his is old. if I just do a similar video, I could probably do well too, just an updated version of it.

3:47And so I did it and I had no idea how that video was going to do because I never did a video like that before. So I posted it and it was crickets. Like nobody watched it. And I'm telling you, nobody. And I wanted to delete it because it's embarrassing when you post it. It's like, this is embarrassing. The view count is dragging me down. It just makes me look bad in my own eyes. So I wanted to delete it, but I said, no, I'm going to move on to the next one. And I don't kid you, I have the graph to show you. But after five months, that video started gaining traction in the search results. And it was like the first thing when people were searching for a hot start in LLC, my video was showing up.

4:23And today that video has now over 200 ,000 views. It's made me over 30 ,000 in ad revenue. And it's made me over$100 ,000 in affiliate commissions. So you can look it up. Yeah. Whitney Bonds, LLC, and you'll see like, I am amazed. Go to popular. I should be right up there. Set up an LLC that two years ago and I updated the date. Sure. Because it's 2025 now. Yeah, new thumbnail. Sure. But you can see it was two years ago right there. Yeah. And that was a video that did it for me that made me say like this thing really works. That's crazy. I'm happy when some of my videos make a thousand bucks. It's like, man, if you can make$100 ,000 from one video, it gets really exciting.

5:06And I do this all the time. Like if you go to how to become a bookkeeper or how to go high level tutorial, like I do this intentionally so people can see my videos that are actively searching for these things. And so it works. Okay. So combination strategy, what's working well for other channels? Maybe it's a little bit outdated. Could I bring my own taste, my own perspective to that topic and create the video about that? And then almost a double dip in this case with the LLC thing. Yeah, I'm going to make money on YouTube ads, but I'm also going to make money as an affiliate partner for whatever LLC formation service that I have to recommend in there.

5:41Yep, exactly. It's just a win-win. All right. Very cool. So this is at Whitney Bonds on YouTube. Definitely check out her channel over there. The next one that I have on my list is a unique one about flipping apples. It's a candy apple service that I found, whereas I bought a bag of apples for five bucks and I made$140 in four hours sitting outside a Ross. There's other material costs involved here. Okay, so you got to make the caramel apple dip that she said I built a little booth or a sign, but I feel like this could do well at any sort of neighborhood event, vendor fair type of thing. We had some kids who were selling shave ice outside of the pool.

6:20We had some kids selling cotton candy in the neighborhood over the summer and talking with one of the moms, they're like, their goal was to save enough for like a Nintendo Switch 2. And they're like, well, they made$100 today. So they're, you know, chipping away at this goal. And I thought it was, it was very cool. And it's cool that the neighborhood was supporting some younger entrepreneurs. But here's kind of a classic example of, you know, raw materials do a little value add and all of a sudden it's worth five times what it originally was. Yeah, my kids literally did a lemonade stand this weekend for the first time and they made a little over$150.

6:52Oh, dang, nice. For two hours. Like people are willing, they got so, like maybe four or five people gave them$20. And so they're just, you know, trying to support the young kids. So I'm just like, oh my gosh, guys, if you want to do this again, we can do this again. So this stuff, this does really work. And if you've got the kid angle, you know, they're going to do better than adults would anyway. Sure. Did they have a price? This is what I'm trying to debate with my kids because we've seen people like, oh, it's a dollar a glass for lemonade or something. And my argument is like, I think you make the lemonade free with an optional tip or like suggested tip or something.

7:27It's like pay what you want kind of pricey because then it's like, oh, I'm probably going to give you five. You know, if I get a couple, I have a hunch the average cart value might be a little bit higher if you made the lemonade free and just tapped into people's goodwill. I think you should charge because I feel like the people want you to empower yourself to know that you can put a value on something and get money back for it. So I think you should charge. I wouldn't say free because I see the angle you're going, but I will always say, like, I think you should charge. When you see how low it is, they'll be like, oh, I want to give more.

8:00That's what I think. Okay. All right. That's fair. My wife's rule, like for Girl Scout cookies, like if the Girl Scout asks, I will always buy. She's like, but they have to ask. If they're just standing there outside of the store, no, no, ask for my business. I will support you. I like that. That's good. The next one that I have is this pressure washing business called Semper Fi Power Washing, at least according to the image here. It says started house washing that grosses over$100 ,000 working to six months a year. I kind of like that. Hey, could I take the winters off and go skiing? I guess probably not a lot of people doing power washing over the winter, but really, really busy months especially kind of the spring cleaning time interesting that so okay the startup costs were a little bit higher here he says i spent thirty thousand dollars on equipment because if you wanted just a basic pressure washer for driveways and houses you can get started for three four hundred dollars and then maybe kind of level up your equipment as you break even on your first job and so i've always said like if i was to start something new start from scratch like this would definitely be on the short list.

9:04Because one, because it's just super, super quick ROI. And two, it's just a plain old like satisfying business. Like it's very clear before and after, like you could tell the work that you did. Yeah, I really do like this a lot. I think that's a great idea. The only thing I think about sometimes like, are you going to continuously be able to get clients? You know, if you do a certain area or you just, I guess you just keep moving further out. Or I guess my question is, how often does a house need to be power washed? Yeah, I could see it being set up as an annual service. Hey, we did it this spring and we can pre-reserve you.

9:37Hey, we'll give you 10 % off for next year if you pre-book. I could see it being a recurring service, like any type of cleaning service. Stuff keeps getting dirty. It's like the dentist. They don't let you leave the dentist before they even book your next appointment. Yeah, I like that. And it's like we get Christmas lights in our house every year and the service, they keep coming back, but they say we have a special discount if we continue to stay on with them. So that's kind of a reason why I just stay on with them just to get the discount. So I do think that's the whole angle that you could use for sure with something like this.

10:07Yeah. I think there's some built-in virality too, where if you see your neighbors getting their house washed or the pressure washing, it's kind of like, oh yeah. You know, how long has it been? I should probably probably do this too. You know, would you mind dropping off a flyer or a pamphlet or a business card? Or how much would it cost to do mine too? You know, you got anything lined up after this? we've booked jobs that way people down the street what yeah do you do skylights yeah come over here you know all that kind of thing no i like that yeah especially too because this is the thing that people just don't have this handy at their house so if someone is out there doing it and you know your house needs this then you're gonna do it if you have the fun so i think it's this is a cool side hustle right here yeah all right what's next on our list this next one is related to writing on mediums and made$10 ,000 in one month, my highest so far.

10:58I'm not super familiar with the medium partner program and the comments, even the original poster here is like, I know this is an aberration. This is not going to like, I'm not going to bank on this every month, but it was still cool to kind of have this viral moment and get paid for it. Yeah. And I saw her comment under here, the next one, she said it will never happen again, but she said, I won't see the same amount for months or even years, but she's happy she made that. So yeah, I think she did bring it down how she was able to do it. But yeah, what I've heard from Medium is just that's not a platform anymore.

11:30That's something that you should even work to try to monetize. But this is a recent, it was four days ago. So this still could be something that can be untapped. But I have heard that it's just got so saturated that people aren't doing it that much anymore. Yeah. Yeah. So how does she do it? Yeah. Story earnings. I've been writing here for five years, right? So it took five years to have this$10 ,000 a month breakthrough. So there's some element of putting in the work. But a handful of these articles really, really went viral. I have a hard time with Medium and I always have if it's like, well, if I want to create this content, I want to put it on my site first.

12:03And then maybe I syndicate it over to Medium, which I don't know if that's allowed, if that's kosher. Exactly. If they're still going to pay out if it's not original content. Right. But in talking with some people, because I thought it was like, they're kind of like think pieces or in contrast to the YouTube thing where it's like, answer a very specific search query. He kind of, and I thought it was like, you're more like CEOs are begging to hire anyone with this one skill, like very curiosity driven. Like you could see, oh, people would want to click on that. Well, what's, what's the one skill?

12:33The other person we talked to about Medium was like, no, it actually is very much search driven. So if you can crack the SEO code on a high authority domain, like Medium, you don't have to start from scratch and building up your own website, your own SEO practices. So So I don't know if there's anything here. I just don't ever see them in search. You know, when I think about when I'm searching, do I really see a lot of articles from them? You know, that's my kind of question. Yeah. Some negative, why open AI is doomed. You know, some of these different. Oh, yeah, yeah. And always subject matter is everything.

13:06So what you talk about, that's going to determine how much you make and how you can make it too. Yeah, writing is a challenging side hustle right now, just given the state of AI and everything else. Yeah, that's a field that I don't know. It depends. You have to have a unique angle if you want to make money with it now. Yeah, you see more people go in the route of, I'm going to have a paid newsletter. I'm going to even a free newsletter. I'm going to monetize with ads. If you really enjoy the art and craft of writing, but it can be tough. Right. I do still believe heavily on newsletters because there are certain people that I still like open all their emails on.

13:40Like you're one of them. Like I still open people's emails that create good content. So I feel like that's still a space and you can get monetized your sponsorships, too, in your newsletter. So I think newsletters are still a good way to make money if you can have a good, unique take that someone is actually interested in. Yes. More Reddit side hustles with Whitney in just a moment, including the pop-up wedding proposal service, a couple local service ideas, and more right after this. There are less than 100 days left in 2025, which means less than 100 days left to hit those goals that you set or to refocus your energy on what really matters.

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16:06I want to invite you to get started for free. Plus, Side Hustle Show listeners get 20 % off your first six months at quo.com slash side hustle. That's Q-U-O dot com slash side hustle. Look at them getting that three-letter domain. q u o dot com slash side hustle. And if you've got existing numbers with another service quo, we'll port them over and no extra charge. Whoa, no missed calls, no missed customers. Okay, what's next? Next one I found was a really cool one a proposal service complete with neon lights, carpets, flowers, candles, four to$800 for a two to three hour setup. And the theory is well, I can cover off my material costs with just one or two or three gigs.

16:54And this is becoming, I think, you know, having that Instagram-worthy proposal picture. I mean, we just saw Taylor's. So there's a whole thing. Yeah, I love this idea so much. I think it's the only thing that I can think about, because I feel like men don't do really well, and no offense, but at planning. So I think that so for men who want to do something nice and probably don't have the ideas, they could just hire a service like this. To me, I feel like it's a brilliant idea. The only thing I think about is when you post like the different things you do, you don't want it to be the same thing because if you set it up and they're like the fiance, I guess, is going to see it, they're going to already know what's about to happen.

17:28So I guess you might have to change it up a bit. Sure. You're going to have a few different packages. But I love this idea. I think it's so cool. So I think this is perfect for the person who's like creative, likes to think outside the box and like be a part of these different experiences. And for other people, I think this could make a great site hustle that's like fulfilling as well. Yeah. You know, a few years ago when like the yard signs for birthdays and graduations were a big thing. Oh, yeah. It's similar where it's like, OK, I have this pretty minimal upfront cost and equipment. And then it's just a matter of reusing that same stuff in a creative way and making it really cool for the picture.

18:04Yeah. And sometimes people may not have like friends or family that can be there for that moment, too. Yeah. So I think that's a good take to do, especially like you're in a popular city like New York or something or people like to propose. I'm just saying it could be anywhere, to be honest. But I think it's a good idea if you're in a fairly busy area that people want to go to. Or it could be local, too. Yeah. Trying to target the proposers, because I imagine it's mostly the proposees who are probably seeing these pictures. Yeah. And you know what I would do? I would partner with like the jewelry stores to like maybe say like if anyone's coming in to get a ring.

18:38Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, sometimes you might kick back or something like that for anybody that they get to book with them. Just a way to promote their services. Yeah, that's a great strategic partnership here. That's kind of what my wife does for her wedding photography business is partnering with the venues. But it's like before they're even looking for wedding venues, they get where are they going? They're going to the engagement ring store. Oh, I love that. So smart. Yeah. And it's like it was very surprising. A couple of things, right? It was first the people who are getting married have bridesmaids who are also in that age who are also going to be getting married soon.

19:08And so that's like the word of mouth started spinning way faster than I would have thought. But it was like within the next year or two, and it's like, well, if you did 10 weddings and that was 50 bridesmaids, it's like, who shot your wedding? Oh, yeah, she was great. Okay. And so it was like it really started to accelerate that way. Oh, yeah, that's so true. And then talking to different venues that they shot at, what does it take to get on your preferred vendor list? Boom, boom, boom. Here's our portfolio. And so that started to go that way, too. Oh, and I love that question. Like, what does it take?

19:35You know, you're not asking, just put me on your list. You're just saying, what do I need to do? So I love that. All right. that was the proposal pop-up service. I think it was kind of a cool one. Next on the list is this window cleaning business, another kind of this low startup cost, blue collar side hustle, where this poster says they're making a thousand bucks a day doing this after going back to college for the year. So we've done a couple of window washing episodes, both with actually college aged entrepreneurs. And they said, I'm going out trying to book one job. The most recent one we had was like, I'm going to try and book one job through social media ads.

20:08And his ads would start out like, hey, Auburn, did you know there's an epidemic of dirty windows going around? Luckily, I have the antidote or I have the solution. And you jump cut to him with a squeegee or something. Very creative, got the attention. And then while they were out, you know, set his crew up on that one job, start knocking on doors, you know, within a half a mile perimeter. Hey, we're doing Mr. and Mrs. Smith's windows over here. We got room in the schedule this afternoon. If you give me 10 seconds, I'll give you an estimate. Just like, don't give him a chance to say no, but I'm a fan of these like low startup costs, go hustle for the business.

20:41Yeah. No, I love this right here. Especially if it's like a young college kid, I would do this too. Like this is something that I don't necessarily want to do. And if I needed it, I would definitely pay for this. So I like this. Yeah. There's another cleaning business one that I have on here. It was the trash can cleaning service where on my surface it's like, well, this is what kids are for. Oh, I want to tell you about this when I just got this done for me. Did you? Yeah. This guy says 10 bucks a month doing 50 a week. So I don't know if he's doing it weekly. My interpretation was like a once a month service kind of on a rotation where he was doing 50 a week.

21:14But how much did your service charge? It was$10. And because he was a young kid, I think I paid him like 20, but I wanted to give him more. Oh, no, it was$10 a can. Okay. And I had two. So I gave him like$28. I was going to give him more because I was just so proud of him being an entrepreneur and like coming and doing a really good job. Yeah. But I didn't have enough cash on me. So I paid him$28. And so he didn't come with the service, though. It's just kind of like whenever, you know, he doesn't know the whole sales pitch yet. But he did a great job. And one thing that I was telling him that he should do is on garbage day, after everybody's taking back their stinky garbage cans, you should put a little sticky note on there and say something like, Smelly Ben, I can do it for only$10 or something like that with your number.

21:59but I was waiting for someone to do that for me because I was waiting because I needed it done. And I'm like, where are the people around here that come around so I could pay him to do it? Yeah. And so I put in a Facebook group and found the guy. There was where I get it. And I like this, you know, low overhead. He's talking about like a little handheld, you know, mini kind of water pump to clean this out. You could buy a complete $50 ,000 truck rig, you know, set up to lift it up and spray it. I was like, I don't know if the market really supports that level of overhead here. But maybe you could start small, start with the flyer, like sticky notes on top of the, tape it to the top of the garbage can right after we just had the garbage can pick up.

22:42I think that would probably resonate well, especially if it was just like a text service. I'll leave it out on the big, could you come by this afternoon? I'll leave it out by the driveway. Yep. And that's literally what I did. I just left it out and he came and did it. And I went and I filmed him. I'm like, can I film you? This is amazing. There's going to be content for me. No, I know. Exactly. I asked my son. They're out there just watching him. And I'm like, you guys want to do this too? What a great side hustle. And my five-year-old's like, no, it stinks. And so I'm like, okay, well, but the guy doesn't care.

23:09I love the work ethic and young entrepreneurs. I love it. Yeah. It's in my head. It's like, well, it's a garbage can. Does it need to be living in this artificial state of cleanliness? It's going to be stinky. Sure. Well, I'll say in our neighborhood, we all have our garbage cans in our garage. Okay. So you don't want it to smell. Yeah. So I think it may depend on your area too. But I know for me, I want it to smell good because I don't want it to stink for that sake of being in my garage. All right. It might be time to bust the hose out. We have this great picture. When our kids were little, they're probably like two and four at this time.

23:43And the little one is in a diaper. He's doing absolutely nothing. He's holding the hose behind the older brother who's like leading it and plugging his nose. And it's like, this is great. Yeah. Thanks, guys. I love it. But yeah, that was maybe, maybe I should have paid him for that, but 10 bucks a month for a garbage can. They deserve a paycheck for that one, I will say. For sure. The next one was a candle making business. And it sounds like candles with a quote on the jar. And that was something that they ended up making like custom affirmation candles. Here it is. This is another potential little product business.