A millennial who used side hustles to pay off debt explains the lucrative and easy ones she recommends

• Lisa Ebsworth has made over £1,000 from TikTok's Creator Rewards Program as a side hustle.
• Ebsworth started with surveys and secret shopping as her side gigs.
• She talked to Business Insider about those and other potential side hustles.

Lisa Ebsworth, 43, can't imagine a future where she's no longer side-hustling .

She believes there's a good side gig out there for everyone; you just have to find it. She found creating a goal for what to do with the money is "essential," adding that's "because you need to see something for your efforts."

Ebsworth, who lives in the UK, aimed to use her side hustle earnings to pay off outstanding student loan and car debt in a year. She said she did that and is now using her earnings to be "mortgage-free in the next two years."

"I feel like it's become just part of my life now," Ebsworth, who started doing side hustles in March 2023, told Business Insider. "It's so ingrained in me."

Below are some of the side hustles Ebsworth has tried out and her thoughts on each.

Surveys

Ebsworth's side hustle journey started with surveys and secret shopping. These are also the two she would recommend others start with because of how easy they can be.

Ebsworth said anyone can try out surveys as a side gig, and while it takes some time, they can be done from home. Ebsworth found "the perfect time" for her to fill out surveys was at home at night.

She said she wouldn't be able to pay off all her remaining student loan and car debt in a year just by doing surveys. "And they were quite time-consuming," Ebsworth said. "So I set to look for something else."

Still, surveys have become part of Ebsworth's routine. She's made more than £2,000 from survey work, including the money she makes if someone uses her code for one of the survey platforms.

She recommended AttaPoll, Survey Pop, and Prolific.

TikTok

Ebsworth has over 50,000 followers on her TikTok account, @sidehustlesister . She has found being on TikTok in general and specifically earning through the platform's rewards program lucrative.

"Being on TikTok and having a good following has opened up a number of doors," she said, adding she "can make money on the Creator Rewards Program just by creating content. And I've made well over £1,000 doing that."

According to TikTok , where you reside, follower count, and number of views, among other things, factor into eligibility for the Creator Rewards Program.

Ebsworth said her rewards at the moment are over 50p per thousand views. "So if I get a viral video, I can get paid really well for it," she said. "And then even the ones that aren't viral, I can still be paid 10, 12, 13 pounds per video, and it just all adds up."

Ebsworth believes this is a side hustle many people can do as long as they are determined to grow their follower count. She suggested that prospective TikTokers make sure their content has keywords that are best for their niche, or content that's "controversial, or it's funny, or it's got an animal in there."

"There's all kinds of different ways of just making a video kind of sell and get people to follow you," she added.

Being comfortable in front of a camera is naturally also important for those hoping to make a TikTok account a side gig.

"If you've got a bit of confidence, and you're just happy to sit and eat your breakfast and talk to camera, or put your makeup on and talk to camera, or take your dog for a walk and talk to camera, then I honestly would recommend that anyone did it for the doors that it opens," Ebsworth said.

Secret shopper

Another possible side hustle is secret shopping. An Indeed post said that "mystery shoppers are field-based market researchers who visit businesses to assess their quality of service with a series of predetermined metrics."

Ebsworth gave an example of reviewing pet food.

"You'll go into the supermarket, and you'll need to take some photographs of the shelves of the pet food and maybe count how many items are on the shelf, how many product lines, whether you think that it looks presentable, what you think might be missing, is the area tidy," she said.

Ebsworth said secret shopping is a side hustle that doesn't need any "special skills," so it could be easy to try. Unlike surveys, secret shopping might be more suited for people who want to find a side hustle that could be done away from home.

Ebsworth has secretly shopped through Proinsight, BeMyEye, and other platforms. She said she always recommends Proinsight because of how much money you can make.

"I really enjoy secret shopping, mainly because I'm quite nosy, and I like being out and about," she said.

She recalled reviewing a bowling alley where she got to take her family with her. "So I've been able to have some really nice family experiences whilst being paid to do them," Ebsworth said.

Guides and other digital products

Another side hustle option is digital products, or "anything that can be sold and delivered digitally," Ebsworth said.

"It could be a wedding invitation design," she added. "It could be artwork for the wall that you sell, and they print at home. It could be a meditation audio. It could be an ebook, a course, a membership. There's so many different ways."

Ebsworth sells a £5 guide about side hustles, and she said digital products are "by far my most lucrative side hustle." For those stuck on what their product could be, Ebsworth said to start by considering what topic you know well and what friends or others want to hear you talk about.

"Once you've figured out your niche, then you need to understand who the people are, who your customers are in that niche, and your digital product needs to solve one of their pain points," she said.

Reach out to this reporter to share how much you make from side hustles at mhoff@businessinsider.com .