Digital Marketing is a vast industry that consists of many sub-niche jobs. Basically, any means of marketing on the Internet is a part of digital marketing. Professional digital marketers are mostly adept at more than a couple of digital marketing outlets while fresh digital marketers may only have the experience of one sub-niche.
If you’re a digital marketer looking to earn extra income, you’re not alone. In fact, statistics show that the average digital marketer earns $73,000 per year.
However, did you know that there are high ticket digital marketing side hustles that can potentially earn you even more?
I have an Idea for You!! A Plan
Earning six figures as a digital marketer is difficult if you’re just an employee of a company. No matter how great your skills may be, you will still be relying on a single source of income that may not be enough to make you rich-rich!
Here is the table of contents. This blog covers tons of useful information. Bookmark this page or save it, don’t get overwhelmed, go through each step, and you will surely succeed.
Table of Contents
- What Are Digital Marketing Side Hustles?
- 7 Most Profitable Digital Marketing Side Hustles
- Conclusion
What Are Digital Marketing Side Hustles?
Digital marketing side hustles are the sub-niches of digital marketing that you can work for and make an extra buck. If digital marketing refers to all the marketing techniques used digitally by businesses, a sub-niche of digital marketing is a single digital outlet used by businesses for marketing e.g. email marketing.
Many businesses don’t hire full-time digital marketers but instead, hire digital marketers that focus on a single marketing outlet to save on costs.
This is where you can jump in part-time and invest your efforts in the most profitable digital marketing side hustles and earn the best bang for your buck.
7 Most Profitable Digital Marketing Side Hustles
With tons of digital marketing sub-niches, today we will focus on only the top 7 digital marketing side hustles that can help you earn the highest incomes and profits in the least amount of time. To highlight the most profitable digital marketing side hustles, I have filtered out digital marketing jobs that are high in demand and have the highest average per-hour rate.
Most of these jobs don’t have high education or experience requirements, so if you’re a beginner digital marketer you can still easily work your way in!
Let’s get started.
1. SEO Optimization
SEO Optimization is the one digital marketing sub-niche with the highest demand and pay. SEO Optimization brings businesses a boost of significant growth and revenue, which is why many businesses want to hire the best SEO experts to make that possible for their websites.
An SEO expert handles the on-page and off-page SEO of a website, conducts SEO audits, creates an SEO strategy for the website, and helps it rank high on Google SERPs.
| Skill | Description |
|---|---|
| Keyword research | Ability to perform keyword research to identify high-value keywords and search phrases that can help improve search rankings. |
| On-page optimization | Knowledge of how to optimize website content, including metadata, headings, internal linking, and image optimization. |
| Technical SEO | Familiarity with technical aspects of SEO, such as website architecture, site speed optimization, and mobile responsiveness. |
| Backlinking | Ability to build and manage a network of high-quality backlinks from other websites, which can help improve search rankings. |
| Content creation | Ability to create high-quality, engaging content that is optimized for search engines and appeals to target audiences. |
| Analytics and reporting | Ability to analyze website traffic and search engine rankings using tools such as Google Analytics and provide regular reports. |
| Social media optimization | Knowledge of how to optimize social media profiles and use social media to drive traffic to a website. |
| Local SEO optimization | Familiarity with local SEO strategies to help businesses rank in local search results and attract customers in their area. |
On average, a digital marketer can earn around $100-$250 an hour doing SEO Optimization as a side hustle.
2. PPC Ads
PPC Ads management is the second most highly paid and demanded digital marketing skill. This is due to the fact that PPC campaigns are very close to the actual revenue earned by the business. Since the boost in revenue can easily be directly traced back to the digital marketer, PPC experts are paid handsomely by businesses for successful ad campaigns.
A PPC expert is responsible for optimizing the existing PPC ads of a business, researching the best outlets to reach the business’ target market through ads, researching keywords to publish PPC ads on, and analyzing and reporting the insights of ad campaigns.
| PPC Gig Type | Description | Average Hourly Pay Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Ad Campaign Creation | Developing and launching ad campaigns across various platforms such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads. | $35 – $90 |
| Keyword Research | Identifying and analyzing relevant keywords for PPC campaigns based on search volume, competition, and user intent. | $25 – $60 |
| Ad Copywriting | Writing persuasive and engaging ad copy that entices potential customers to click on your ads. | $30 – $70 |
| Landing Page Design | Designing and optimizing landing pages that align with your ad campaigns and drive conversions. | $40 – $90 |
| Performance Analysis | Monitoring and analyzing PPC campaign performance, including click-through rates, conversion rates, and return on ad spend. | $35 – $80 |
| Account Management | Managing and optimizing PPC accounts for clients, including budget allocation, bid adjustments, and ad testing. | $45 – $100 |
| Remarketing | Creating and managing remarketing campaigns that target users who have previously interacted with your website or ads. | $40 – $80 |
The goal of a PPC expert is to get as many clicks on the business’ PPC ads as possible to reach the highest amount of target market on the internet.
On average, digital marketers managing PPC ad campaigns can earn around $30-$50 an hour.
3. Content Writing
Good content is a crucial key for businesses to unlock better approaches to reach their clients and close more deals. Content writing doesn’t only help businesses with better SEO, but also helps them conduct email marketing, create ad copies, make scripts for cold-calling, and much more.
Digital marketers can not only help businesses with content writing for their websites but can also create content strategies and manage the content of a website to achieve optimal results.
Most content writers are judged by the Google SERP rankings of the website, however, if you’re more involved with copywriting, you’d be judged for the sales made by the business.
Copywriting is the most profitable sub-niche of content writing.
On average, a digital marketer can earn around $50 an hour writing and managing content for businesses.
| Content Writing Gig Type | Description | Average Hourly Pay Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Blog Writing | Creating blog posts for websites or other online platforms, often on specific topics or industries. | $20 – $50 |
| Copywriting | Writing promotional or marketing copy for websites, emails, ads, or other digital content, with a focus on driving sales or conversions. | $25 – $100 |
| Technical Writing | Creating technical documentation or instructional content, often for software, hardware, or other complex products. | $30 – $80 |
| Creative Writing | Writing fiction or non-fiction stories, poems, or other creative works, often for publication in books, magazines, or online. | $20 – $75 |
| Content Editing | Reviewing and editing existing content for clarity, accuracy, and style, often with a focus on SEO optimization. | $25 – $50 |
| Grant Writing | Writing proposals or grant applications for nonprofit organizations or other groups seeking funding for specific projects or programs. | $30 – $100 |
| Academic Writing | Writing research papers, essays, or other academic content for students or researchers, often requiring specific formatting and citation styles. | $20 – $50 |
Note that these hourly pay scales are based on averages and may vary depending on factors such as the writer’s experience, the level of complexity of the content, and the scope of the project. Additionally, rates can be negotiated depending on the writer’s preferences and the client’s budget.
4. Affiliate Marketer
Affiliate marketing is a relatively new digital marketing skill, but is definitely one of the most profitable one. Affiliate marketing involves digital marketers to promote online listed products (mostly on Amazon) and earning commissions for every sale made on that product through their promotions.
As digital marketers are already expert at marketing products digitally, many Amazon Sellers rely on digital marketers to promote their products through digital marketing skills e.g. blogging.
The goal is to promote products to their target market and get as many clicks as you can through your promotions.
On average, a digital marketer can earn around $80 an hour through affiliate marketing.
5. Blogger
If you’re a digital marketer and you haven’t set up your blog left, you’re already far behind digital marketing experts out there.
Starting a blog is the best side hustle for a digital marketer. Not only does it provide you with a healthy passive income outlet, but your blog’s success can also be used as a profile for digital marketers to land top clients and businesses.
Running a blog will require you to fiddle with all the digital marketing skills that you know i.e. content writing, affiliate marketing, email marketing, PPC ad management, etc. This means even if you lack behind on a digital marketing skill, you can implement it on your own website and learn from it.
At the end of the day, your goal with a blog would be to make it rank high on Google SERPs with impeccable SEO to improve organic traffic and help yourself earn AdSense income, and also manage some affiliate marketing on the blog to make extra bucks.
On average, a digital marketer running a blog can earn around $50,000 per annum.
6. Web Design
To create a website from scratch, all businesses require a web designer. Even though many digital marketers don’t learn web designing, it can be a very profitable and important skill to use throughout your digital marketing career.
As a starter, you should at least work your way through learning Shopify and WordPress websites. These are the most highly demanded niches for Web Designing.
Every day, hundreds of businesses require a new website. And for businesses with an existing website, web designers can help them optimize and revamp their website for a better look and performance.
| Web Design Gig Type | Description | Average Hourly Pay Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Website Design | Creating visually appealing and functional website designs, often using tools such as Adobe Photoshop or Sketch. | $30 – $80 |
| Front-end Development | Translating website designs into HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code, often using frameworks such as React or Angular. | $40 – $100 |
| User Experience (UX) Design | Designing intuitive and user-friendly interfaces that meet the needs of target audiences, often using wireframes and prototypes. | $50 – $120 |
| E-commerce Development | Designing and developing e-commerce websites or online stores using platforms such as Shopify or WooCommerce. | $50 – $120 |
| Responsive Design | Ensuring that websites are optimized for different devices and screen sizes, often using responsive design techniques. | $40 – $90 |
| Website Maintenance | Updating and maintaining existing websites, including fixing bugs, optimizing performance, and implementing new features. | $30 – $70 |
| Content Management Systems (CMS) | Designing, developing and customizing CMS platforms such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or Magento. | $40 – $100 |
On average, a digital marketer can earn around $30 an hour designing websites.
7. Email Marketing
Emailing may be one of the oldest digital marketing techniques, but it still sells better than ever! To this day, email marketing has a titanic ROI $42 for every dollar spent, making it on of the most profitable marketing outlets for businesses and a profitable skill for digital marketers.
Email marketing specialists are required to craft high-quality email content with attractive subject lines and appealing CTAs, generate a list of leads from the target market of the business, and use emailing software to send these emails.
The goal of an email marketing specialist is to make recipients open and click on the links mentioned in the email (mostly referring back to the landing page of the business).
On average, a digital marketer can earn around $15-$40 an hour creating and managing email marketing.
Conclusion
It should be clear to you now that digital marketing is an extremely vast field. While this does give you potential competition to deal with, if you do it right, you can discover and enter the sub-niches of digital marketing and make big bucks!
Many digital marketers have even become millionaires working from home as digital nomads with these side husltes, and so can you!
