I got tired of reading "top side hustles" articles that recycle the same ideas, so I looked at what people are actually searching for.
I pulled 12 months of search data across a bunch of side hustles and compared monthly search volume with whether interest was growing or declining.
A few stood out.
1. Building apps without code was easily the biggest, at around 90.5k searches a month. With AI and no-code tools, you can describe what you want to build and get surprisingly far without being a developer. The interesting part to me is that people who could never afford to hire a dev can now launch small software products themselves.
2. AI SEO services were much smaller, at around 3.6k searches a month, but the growth caught my attention. Interest really started taking off in the second half of the year. The basic model is doing SEO for businesses while using AI for much of the content production and on-page work.
3. AI receptionists and voice agents were around 5.4k searches a month. This one feels especially practical for local businesses. Think dentists, salons, contractors, clinics, etc. They miss calls; you set up an AI agent to answer common questions and book appointments, then charge for setup and ongoing management.
4. Small business automation was another interesting one, at roughly 2.9k searches a month. There are tons of owners hearing that they need to "use AI" but having no clue what that actually means. Setting up things like invoicing, customer support, onboarding, and follow-ups is a straightforward service business.
5. Getting paid to train AI was around 8.1k searches a month. Basically, it's remote work rating responses, labeling data, or helping models improve. From what I've seen, people with specialized knowledge can sometimes get access to better-paying work because AI companies still need a lot of human feedback.
6. Then there's the AI virtual assistant angle, at around 6.6k searches a month. It's basically traditional VA work, except AI handles a lot of the repetitive stuff like inbox management, scheduling, and research. In theory, that means one VA can manage considerably more clients than before.
Obviously, search volume doesn't automatically mean something is a good business. High search volume can also mean lots of competition or just people looking for information rather than actually paying for something.
But I thought the trends were more interesting than another generic list of "start dropshipping, do affiliate marketing, become a freelancer."
If you had to pick one of these to start from scratch right now, which would you choose? And is anyone here already making money from one of them?
I pulled 12 months of search data across a bunch of side hustles and compared monthly search volume with whether interest was growing or declining.
A few stood out.
1. Building apps without code was easily the biggest, at around 90.5k searches a month. With AI and no-code tools, you can describe what you want to build and get surprisingly far without being a developer. The interesting part to me is that people who could never afford to hire a dev can now launch small software products themselves.
2. AI SEO services were much smaller, at around 3.6k searches a month, but the growth caught my attention. Interest really started taking off in the second half of the year. The basic model is doing SEO for businesses while using AI for much of the content production and on-page work.
3. AI receptionists and voice agents were around 5.4k searches a month. This one feels especially practical for local businesses. Think dentists, salons, contractors, clinics, etc. They miss calls; you set up an AI agent to answer common questions and book appointments, then charge for setup and ongoing management.
4. Small business automation was another interesting one, at roughly 2.9k searches a month. There are tons of owners hearing that they need to "use AI" but having no clue what that actually means. Setting up things like invoicing, customer support, onboarding, and follow-ups is a straightforward service business.
5. Getting paid to train AI was around 8.1k searches a month. Basically, it's remote work rating responses, labeling data, or helping models improve. From what I've seen, people with specialized knowledge can sometimes get access to better-paying work because AI companies still need a lot of human feedback.
6. Then there's the AI virtual assistant angle, at around 6.6k searches a month. It's basically traditional VA work, except AI handles a lot of the repetitive stuff like inbox management, scheduling, and research. In theory, that means one VA can manage considerably more clients than before.
Obviously, search volume doesn't automatically mean something is a good business. High search volume can also mean lots of competition or just people looking for information rather than actually paying for something.
But I thought the trends were more interesting than another generic list of "start dropshipping, do affiliate marketing, become a freelancer."
If you had to pick one of these to start from scratch right now, which would you choose? And is anyone here already making money from one of them?