Introduction to AI Side Hustles
Seven AI side hustles you can start from scratch. I’ll begin with the easiest AI side hustles and work my way up to the harder yet higher earning ones. Stock footage.
Need for Stock Photos and Videos
Many businesses need specific photos and videos for marketing and other purposes, but lack the time, skills, or resources to shoot custom footage themselves. On platforms like Adobe Stock and Shutterstock, people are uploading photos and videos for businesses to license earning around $1 per download. Now, that might not seem like much, but since these downloads can bring in passive income forever, the money can really add up over time.
How It Works
It offers top AI models like Sora 2, VO3.1, and Nano Banana to create high quality watermark free footage. To generate a stock photo, select the text to image tool. With a simple prompt, generate a professional photo in seconds.
Generating Stock Video
Now, to generate a stock video, use that stock photo to create a clip out of it with a photo to clip tool. Prompt what to happen and it will generate a cinematic video that looks incredibly real. It would have cost so much time and money to film this in real life.
Example of Effective Stock Footage
The most licensed stock footage are those that are well shot and usable for a wide audience. For example, a clip of a cute puppy playing in a park. It could be used for a pet brand, a clinic, an animal shelter, or a happy commercial. Compare that to the cute puppy doing a pop shove it on a skateboard in front of an explosion. I’m not sure who would license that. The more versatile the footage, the better. Though, it shouldn’t be so generic that it doesn’t stand out.
Stock Footage Reality
You never know what will pop off. It’s usually the clips you least expect. It’s a numbers game. The more footage you upload, the higher the chance one will be licensed. Invideo is packed with AI tools.
Difficulty and Earning Rating
For difficulty, rating stock footage one out of five sweat drops. Generate, upload, and wait for the passive income to roll in. For earning potential, rating it one out of five stacks. There’s a lot of stock footage out there, which means waiting for a while. Build a large portfolio to make any decent amount of money.
Custom Footage Overview
Custom footage. While stock footage works for many businesses, some require custom footage featuring certain scenes, products, or logos that generic stock footage can’t provide. People are generating custom video footage for around $80 per clip. The process is similar to generating stock footage, just with client instructions.
How to Create Custom Footage
Within video, write a prompt mentioning a product and logo. Upload photos of the product and logo for AI to reference. Make sure to use flagship models like Sora 2 and VO3.1 for the best quality. You have fully custom footage to hand off.
Upselling and Difficulty
To make more money, consider upselling add ons like voiceovers, music, sound effects, subtitles, or additional editing. Mention them in the prompt and they’ll be added. It’s simple. For difficulty, rating custom footage two out of five sweat drops. There can be some tweaking involved compared to generating stock footage.
Earning Potential
For earning potential, rating it two out of five stacks. Most clients who want custom footage are also looking for fully edited videos, which conclude music videos. Many artists are enlisting AI to help create their music videos.
Creating AI Music Videos
AI music videos bring in a few hundred to over $1,000 each depending on length and concept. Make one within video by specifically prompting it to create a music video. Add the song’s lyrics so it understands the vibe and mood better. You get a full music video with multiple cohesive shots to layer over a song.
Visualizers and Earning Potential
Consider selling visualizers. Videos with minimal or looping visuals that match a track. Generate a couple of clips and have them loop to a song or even generate a full music video and market it as a premium visualizer to charge more. Not every artist may want an AI music video, but many may be open to an AI visualizer.
Difficulty Rating
For difficulty, rating music videos two out of five sweat drops. It’s generating a bunch of custom footage to music. For earning potential, rating it three out of five stacks. UGC or user generated content is any content promoting a brand that’s made by real people instead of the brand itself.
UGC and Virtual Actors
Many businesses hire UGC creators to produce content for their marketing because it feels more authentic and relatable than traditional advertising. And with AI now, no need to show your face or use your voice. Use AI twins on In Video and pick an actor from their selection of UGC virtual actors.
Selecting AI Actors
You’ll find all kinds of faces suited for different brands, products, and niches. Enter a prompt with or without a script. You get a UGC ad made to convert.
UGC Earnings
Earn around $50 per AI UGC video. With businesses often buying multiple videos at once, earnings can multiply per client. Upsell AI generated B roll shots of the product, script writing, and usage rights.
Creating AI Avatars
If you want to make money with AI UGC, consider turning yourself into an AI actor. On In Video, upload a video of yourself speaking, and it will create an AI avatar of you with your face and voice to generate videos with.
Standing Out
With your own AI avatar, stand out from all the other AI faces and voices out there. The better the footage you input, the better the results. For difficulty, rating UGC three out of five sweat drops. Know how to write and edit effective ads to be hired consistently. For earning potential, rating it three out of five stacks.
Business Videos Overview
Business videos. On the opposite end of UGC are polished business videos like professional paid ads, explainers, training videos, and social media content. With AI, produce them without touching a camera or microphone.
Business Video Tools
In Video offers a variety of workflows for all types of business videos. From short ads to Tik Tok shop videos to brand stories with a simple prompt, generate a business video with cinematic visuals and audio. Revenue can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars per video based on length.
Finding Clients
Reach out directly to businesses. Start with local trades and services like plumbers, roofers, and HVAC companies. These businesses need video help and don’t have a specific product to feature, which makes generating footage easier.
Expectations in Business Video Work
Prepare to generate all kinds of custom footage because business video requests can be all over the place. Be ready to do some video editing as well since businesses often want logos, lower thirds, and other clips added in. For difficulty, rating business videos four out of five sweat drops. For earning potential, rating it four out of five stacks.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing. Promote products or services using affiliate links. For each signup or purchase made through the links, earn a commission. The amount varies by business. Some affiliate programs pay $1 to $10 per conversion. Some pay $100 to $1,000.
Affiliate Earnings
There are several ways to promote affiliate links. Paid ads, blog posts, websites, and social media.
Using AI for Affiliate Marketing
Using the same AI video generation processes, create social media accounts to post videos and ads that drive traffic to your affiliate links. Pump out a large volume, and you’re bound to get some conversions. The secret to making money with affiliate marketing is to focus on high commission niches.
High Commission Niches
These include finance, business, software, personal development, and health and wellness. These niches pay the most per signup or sale. Work smarter, not harder. For difficulty, rating affiliate marketing four out of five sweat drops. Admittedly, it requires work with no guarantee of making any money.
Affiliate Earnings Potential
For earning potential, rating four out of five stacks. Influencer. It’s nothing new that being an influencer can reel in a lot of money. What is new is that more and more of those influencers are actually AI.
AI Influencers
There are two approaches to creating your own AI influencer. The first approach is to create one that is purely AI generated. This means an AI generated face which you can use UGC virtual actors to create or no face at all.
AI Influencer Workflows
There are workflows on In Video to quickly generate entire faceless videos from listicles to explainers to educational content. You can also generate animated videos in various styles which are great for kids as well as realistic short films and documentaries.
AI Avatar Influencers
The second approach to creating an AI influencer is for you to be the influencer through your AI avatar. You can easily generate talking head videos of yourself for news, explainer, commentary, and educational videos.
Advantages of AI Avatars
Showing a real face on social media can boost your credibility with your audience, attract more sponsorships, and unlock real world opportunities. For difficulty, I am rating influencing five out of five sweat drops.