2020 was tough for all of us. It highlighted the fragility of the world’s economy, and many people lost their jobs in a matter of weeks after the Earth locked down.

In 2021, I know the perfect way to safeguard your income against pretty much any eventuality.

Start a side-hustle.

For instance, my “side-hustle” of running an online course generated upwards of $50,000 for me this year — in the middle of a pandemic! It’s actually not even a side-hustle anymore, I guess you’d call it a “full hustle,” since I do it full-time.

Side-hustles can turn into a full-time job at best and a pretty reliable second-income at worst. You might have a lot of fun doing it, too.

In 2021, here’s five different side-hustle ideas for you to try as well as a few beginner resources for each.

1. Dropshipping ($100,000+ Per Year)

Making $100,000 as a dropshipper is hard work, but that’s certainly the ceiling if you get good at it.

What is dropshipping?

Shopify defines it as “a retail fulfillment method where a store doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, when a store sells a product using the dropshipping model, it purchases the item from a third party and has it shipped directly to the customer.”

Basically someone orders a product from you, then you call a third-party to ship it directly to the customer. You never physically handle the product. It’s pretty incredible.

My friend Thomas Despin made some $750,000 from dropshipping years ago, and while I’m no expert on it, here’s a FREE resource to check out if you want to pursue it..

• Oberlo’s Dropshipping 101: Build Your First Online Store: This is a free video course from Oberlo with 33 lessons and some 2 hours of content.

2. Create An Online Course ($1,000,000+ Per Year)

You think I’m joking. $1,000,000 a year, Tom? You’re kidding.

No, I’m not kidding.

I made a course about writing on Medium that’s generated over $170,000+ since I launched it in late 2017. You don’t need to have some incredible expertise or knowledge to make one, either. You just need to know more about your topic than the average person.

The best person to read if you want to create an online course is Mariah Coz.

Her insights into using webinars to sell an online course led to tens of thousands in sales for me.

3. Buying And Flipping Domain Names ($2,000-$3,000 Per Month)

The most expensive domain name ever, Cars.com, sold for $872 million. Say what? One domain name sold for a hair shy of a billion dollars?

Grant Sabatier at Millennial Money has made $60,000 flipping domain names and owns about 800 of them as we speak.

Someone offered him $45,000 for a domain he bought for $300. It can be a really profitable business to run if you know where to go to learn about it.

4. Buy + Flip Pokemon Cards ($500 Per Month)

Of all the side-hustle ideas we’ve talked about so far, this has the biggest upside in my opinion.

According to One37PM, the most valuable english card, 1st Edition Charizard in PSA 10 Gem Mint has soared from $50,000.00 in July 2020 to a recent record-breaking purchase by the rapper Logic for $225,000.00.

So basically, that Charizard card quadrupled in market value in four months.

There’s videos on Youtube of people talking about how they make $500 per month buying and flipping Pokemon cards, and with many believing the market won’t plateau for years, this opportunity could last a long time.

Here’s a great article from One37PM about how to get into the Pokemon Card market and start making money buying + selling cards.

5. Freelance Writing ($5,000+ Per Month)

Zulie Rane, someone who contributes to the Post-Grad Survival Guide quite a lot, says she made some $6,000 in her first month of full-time freelance writing.

If you want some great insights and advice on getting started as a freelance writer, her Adventures In Freelancing column for us is well-worth a read.

I got started as a freelance writer in 2015 before I started blogging full-time, and it can definitely be a great way to pay the bills while working from home. If taken more seriously, you can make six figures per year.

I hope you enjoyed this side-hustle article!