This is my latest video, and as always, I have high expectations.
BUT … in this case, I actually believe this one’s going to “blow up.” More on that later on in this post.
First, I just want to explain why I made this video and how I selected the dumbest side hustles.
If you’re in the habit of searching for things like make money online on YouTube, you’re going to see tons of garbage. But it all looks so shiny and real.
Spoiler alert, the vast majority of the side hustles you’ll find on YouTube are complete fiction. And even worse, these videos get hundreds of thousands of views, sometimes millions even, and the comments are astounding. People THANK YouTubers for this trash because they don’t realize that it’s all fake BS.
How I chose the dumbest side hustles on YouTube
I was careful to not go after side hustles simply because I don’t like how they’re presented. For example, selling print on demand and digital products on Etsy is a big video topic, and a lot of YouTubers push it in a way that’s misleading and dishonest.
But the actual side hustle of selling on Etsy? Completely legit. So I did not mention Etsy in my video.
The side hustles I went after are the ones where you are instructed to do shady things like use link shorteners, make spammy social media posts, and generally try to take shortcuts in order to make money.
The thing that all of these YouTubers have figured out is that people will watch, like, and subscribe if you tell them what they want to hear. And what they want to hear is that they can make lots of money with little to no effort.
But of course, that’s just not how the world works.
Here’s why I think my dumbest side hustles video is going to be a big success
So back to why I think this video is going to BLOW THE F**K UP!
- This video topic of dumbest side hustles resonates with a very wide audience, and there are tons of people watching side hustle videos. YouTube will definitely recommend my video to them.
- Calling out 10 side hustles in particular creates curiosity. People probably have a certain side hustle they’re considering, and they will want to see if it’s in my video.
- People like Top 10 lists. I’m not sure about the psychology behind this, but I think counting down to the #1 whatever is somehow suspenseful.
So in terms of metrics, my video has been live for 12 hours and 25 minutes. Here’s where it currently stands in terms of views and general “reach.”
I feel like I’m starting to find my “niche” on YouTube. It was originally going to be AI, but I’m definitely starting to turn my focus toward YouTube-specific content that relates to side hustles.
I wonder where this video will be a month from now? Hopefully this is one of those videos that carries my channel!
Here’s the script I wrote for this video. I followed it pretty closely, but cut certain things out.
Intro
I was originally going to cover all 10 of these terrible side hustles in one video, but in order to explain exactly why each one is a turd, I decided to split this into two videos.
Also, this is a great way to get twice the views.
— You’re not supposed to say that part out loud, dumbass
I AM SO STUPID
Hello and happy Chuseok to all of my Korean friends around the world.
— Who are you talking to? You have zero friends
Thanks for the reminder.
As we go through all of these terrible side hustles, please be sure to leave a comment if you’ve tried any them or if you think we left something out.
And I can assure you that the #1 dumbest side hustle is painfully stupid, so I hope you’ll stick around for the whole list.
— Let’s do this
10. Get paid to “watch” YouTube videos
The “side hustle” of watching youtube videos takes many forms, and it’s sometimes packaged as “watching YouTube shorts.” But no matter what version of this side hustle you come across, rest assured that it is complete bullpoopy. Those videos will send you to scam websites and they’ll have you doing all kinds of stupid things that will get you zero money.
But we’re going to talk about one version of this grift in particular. It actually deserves to be #1 on the list because not only is it dumb, it’s also literally a scam, and we’re putting it at #10 so that we talk about it first. I want as many people as possible to learn what this is really about.
— Also, if you do this, you’re a total douchebag
Normally I’d tell Larry to cool it with the language, but she’s actually 100% correct. Here’s how this side hustle scam works.
(show clip)
— That guy is a total dou—
OK, now let’s see WHY this is a scam, as explained by Monique on her channel, Journey With the Hintons.
(show clip)
And if you’re still not convinced, here’s a review from Lush Dollar, an affiliate review website.
(show review)
And the cherry on top of this pile of poop is this comment from that earlier video
— You mean the one with the dou—
Yes that one.
You bastard. I have tried all videos strategies suggested by you. All your strategies are fake. Son of a bitch. You wasted my time.
— Ajaykumar, you are a legend
Bottom line, you will never get paid to sit at home in your und erwear and watch YouTube videos. And trying to make money with ANY link shortener is a complete waste of time.
Whatever money you “earn” will be pocket change, and there’s no guarantee that you’ll get paid at all. There are lots of reports online of link shortening services not paying out. Scammers are gonna scam, so don’t be surprised if they scam you, too.
9. Get paid to type
Online transcription jobs are legit. If you have that kind of job, don’t quit.
— That job is too legit to quit.
You guys have no idea who MC Hammer is, do you?
— FYI, Michael is incredibly old.
Ok well legit transcription work is not what these YouTubers are talking about.
(show clip)
This is honestly pretty amazing. The website that all of these YouTubers are sending people to is really just a whole bunch of google ads that are packaged as a legitimate website.
— LOL pure genius
It kind of is, unless you’re flat broke and actually looking for some income. In fact, the apply now page literally says “Apply yourself” which is actually kind of funny.
— There is link to an “application” page buried somewhere among the ads, but actually giving them your personal info would be a mistake
I definitely agree, don’t do that. And in case you’re somehow still on the fence about this, here’s what the YouTube channel Paid From Surveys has to say.
(show clip)
Yeah unlike this fake website, the Paid From Surveys guy IS legit, so kudos to Michael, no relation
a
Ok moving on
8. Get paid to spam AI generated YouTube shorts
300 shorts in 30 minutes! Wow!
(show clip)
Most of these videos seem like they’re basically just copying each other by showing the channel Daily Facts Worth as an example of how rich you can get on Shorts.
Here’s one that did some digging and found two more shorts channels that are pulling in the views.
—Oh boy
Say it with me Larry.
—(together) None of these channels are monetized.
Maybe they were at one time, I have no idea, but they certainly aren’t anymore. And if you want to check for yourself, just right click, view page source, and search for the word monetization. Value true means money. Value false means no money.
— Yet the Make Money YouTubers keep on putting out these videos.
Right, and people will keep on trying to mass produce shorts, and they will get nothing as a result.
I’ve said this before, and I’m gonna keep on saying it. YouTube will not pay for garbage content that is 100% AI-produced.
Why would they? If they thought advertisers would pay for automated garbage, they could just automate it themselves. YouTube doesn’t need to pay you for your special brand of AI trash.
—Is this rant over yet
To be continued.
7. Get paid to copy and paste YouTube Shorts and TikTok Videos
As with most of these so-called side hustles, this one also takes many forms. Most of these videos tell you to steal someone’s video, tinker with it in Canva, and re-upload it as your own.
— Genius. I’m sure YouTube will fall for that
Yeah that sounds like a great way to never make a dime from YouTube.
But here’s one where Ryan Hildreth claims that he’s showing you how to do this copy and paste thing, but what he actually demonstrates is how to make AI-generated shorts with a video editor called Capcut.z
— And that’s not even the dumbest part of this video.
Larry is correct, it gets WAY dumber.
Here, he points to Social Blade revenue figures for two popular shorts channels, and that’s “proof” that you can make tons of cash by following his instructions.
— LOL just like those other shorts channels, neither of these is making any money. Top 10ner, no money. And this one, also no money. And this video from the monezy making genius Ryan Hildreth is only a month old.
And not only that, but the payout on YouTube shorts is pennies per thousand views, so Top 10ner probably isn’t even reaching the low end of this estimate.
— Wow Michael, you’re not as unbelievably stupid as you look
Thanks?
6. Get paid to listen to music
One variation of this side hustle has you downloading music tracks from Pixabay
— LOL this is so goddam stupid
and putting them on a spammy download site that serves ads to all the people who are clamoring to download your royalty free music.
And this video shows a sketchy website where you apparently get paid “bits” to climb some ridiculous tier system that ends with you getting screwed over.
— The lengths humans go to in order to avoid actually working
Wait it gets even better. The most popular version of “get paid to listen to music” has you submitting playlists to some website called Music Gateway.
— So Michael, all you have to do is submit all of your Motley Crue playlists and cash out?
All of these videos make it sound that way, but if you look at Music Gateway’s application for playlist submission, it asks how many submissions you receive per week. And then there’s this other random website that says you’re redirecting “clients” to submit their music at Music Gateway.
— Ok this is starting to sound like a massive circle jerk
Well whatever this is, I seriously doubt the average side hustler is going to make a single penny from it.
Imagine explaining to your landlord that you’ll have the rent any day now because you listened to 500 songs
— Did you write the prompt for that image while you were watching … the Hub LOL LOL
5. Get paid to post to Pinterest
Larry, do you love Pinterest?
— NO.
Good, cuz you’re not gonna make any money there anyway
(show clip)
— And here’s this poor sap wondering why this side hustle isn’t working.
I am getting a lot of views but like I said no one is actually clicking my link and buying anything
Gosh, I wonder why people on Pinterest aren’t clicking spam links and buying garbage.
— But social platforms LOVE spam. This one’s a real headscratcher
And by the way, this applies to all social media platforms. Do not sit there for hours and spam links in places where nobody wants them. You’re wasting your time, and you’ll probably just wind up getting banned.
4. Get paid to use Google ______
— It’s almost as if Google is a gigantic ATM machine
YouTubers would like you to believe that.
(show clips)
ALL of these Google side hustles are trash. Most of them involve getting an affiliate link and somehow use Google to deliver it to the masses.
— So Google isn’t really the side hustle. It’s spamming links everywhere.
Yep.
Only ONE Google side hustle actually has any real potential, and it’s the Google Maps one. But it requires you to actually learn how Google Business Profiles work, and then you get to cold call business owners to sell them your profile upgrading services!
— Small business owners just love getting cold-called by people who want money
I’ve actually done cold calling in the past, and it was the worst month of my life. Based on my real-life experience, Larry and I will now give you a realistic demonstration of what you can expect when you start dialing.
—Larry’s House of Peace and Meditation, how may I brighten your day?
—Hello, my name is Michael and I’m calling
—GO FUCK YOURSELF YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE
And scene.
—IF YOU EVER CALL HERE AGAIN I’M GONNA CUT YOUR FUCKING DICK OFF
3. Get paid to upload videos
— There IS a strategy where you can make money by uploading videos.
(together) It’s called YouTube.
But these YouTubers correctly assume that you want to make money NOW, not after gaining subscribers and watch hours, and they also assume
—correctly
that people want to put in as little effort as humanly possible.
This video claims that you’ll make money by uploading stock video garbage to Skillshare
— You won’t
This video claims that you’ll make money by uploading actual content to a YouTube wannabe called Rumble
— And this guy actually tried it and didn’t make shit
Btw, that guy’s name is Eli, and kudos to you Eli, nice work
There’s another strategy where you find public domain content that is actually OK to use, and you upload it. And you can do this, too, but you still have to turn it into something original before YouTube is going to monetize it.
— Show them the space guy
Space guy, also known as Raw Space, has original content as well as reused content in the form of unedited NASA launch footage. The result? Demonetized.
— Bummer dude
Yeah that sucks. But at least now you know that public domain or creative commons footage does not automatically equal dollars.
2. Get paid to play games, take surveys, watch ads, and do other stupid shit
— LOL this lady gets roasted so hard in the comments
Settle down Larry, we haven’t even seen the video yet
(play clip)
So like Larry said, she really takes a beating in the comments
The notion that you can earn $400 per day is absurd
With the money you get you’ll be at 10% of minimum wage
I sat here for 5 hours and only got $1.10
One of my cats got sick and I had to use all my rent money on her
—try something else that WILL WORK
Taxi girl it’s a fake waste our time
— oh my god that last comment He called her a taxi girl LOL
Yeah we don’t need to go there.
—Hey look, Urban Dictionary sells taxi girl coffee mugs
What these people are so upset about is that this nice lady here just told them how great this GPT site is
— By the way, GPT has nothing to do with ChatGPT. Here, GPT is short for Get Paid To, as in get paid to play games, get paid to take surveys, and generally get paid to perform menial tasks that pay next to nothing. The highest paying “tasks” are ones that require the user to sign up for something and often enter a credit card number.
It seems like videos promoting GPT sites are everywhere, and as you can see from the comments on this video, they are a total waste of time. Some of these sites DO actually pay, but it will probably take you hours and hours to earn just $5.
- Get paid to upload photos
And finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for
— or quietly dreading
(show clip)
Ok just to review, Ryan Hildreth wants you to:
- Download free pictures from Pexels
- Upload them to Shutterstock
- Profit!
— But he showed the Paypal screenshot of him getting a payment!
Yeah, first of all, that’s just a balance, not a payment. He could have grabbed that from Google images. Oh, and that’s also the exact same screenshot from this other video
— LOL he’s not even trying to hide it. It’s all BS and he doesn’t care who notices.
Guys, if you try doing this Shutterstock thing, you are guaranteed to make zero dollars.
This might actually be the single dumbest “side hustle” I’ve ever seen on YouTube.
Shutterstock is a publicly traded company, and they’re not in the business of buying photos that they could literally download themselves in five seconds.
— It would be hilarious if they did
And by the way, Ryan Hildreth isn’t the only one who plays this game. Lots of YouTubers just put out video after video about ridiculous side hustles that don’t work.
That’s how they gain subscribers in the hundreds of thousands, many of whom live in places where isn’t a lot of opportunity.
And these YouTubers pump out videos that are strictly about profit for THEM, not for you.
— As long as people keep watching, the YouTuber gets ad revenue, brand sponsorships, affiliate revenue, and a platform for selling their secret formula for success
Which is most likely“watch my videos and do exactly what I do.”
There’s nothing wrong with making money on YouTube. In fact, I’m trying to do that right now as I sit here. I’m just telling you all of this so that you know who’s really in front of the camera.
It might be someone who is actually trying to give you something worthwhile, whether it’s information or entertainment.
Or it might be someone who is simply making money from your attention, your clicks, and maybe even your hard-earned dollars if you decide to pay for whatever course they’re offering.
—God you’re sexy
wait what
Things a certain YouTuber might say to Michael if they ever meet face to face
My course costs $1000 but I’ll kick your face in for free
You’re about to become a faceless Youtuber
My new side hustle is beating your ass
I’m going to smash your face for the youtube algorithm