Building an Online Side Hustle: The Real Journey

I’m Derek. I’ve been growing my main business for 19 years, and for a long time I’ve also been building an online side hustle, often getting up before sunrise to work on it.

No audience. No leads. No products of my own. Just a lot of trial and error.

This is where I share what’s working, what isn’t, and what I’m learning along the way.

Watch the free Video
Read My story

Why I’m Doing This

I didn’t set out to build an online business. When I was a younger entrepreneur, I just wanted a side hustle I could do in my spare time to make some quick extra money.

I tried online surveys and writing video captions. Each one turned out to be a dead end.

Then, while I was growing my main business, I discovered affiliate marketing. It was really marketing and sales, done online: ads, social media, email lists, landing pages, and automated emails. I realized that if I made it my side hustle, I’d also be learning how to sell online, which could help my main business grow.

What fascinated me most was selling digital products. Someone finds an offer, buys it on a sales page, and gets it instantly by email or download. It was a completely different sales process from my main business, where selling takes longer and is much more personal.

For years, I dabbled. I promoted products for a few companies and spent $500 testing online ads from a book’s advice, and made $0. I wasn’t making money from the side hustle, but I was learning, and much of it helped my main business.

About three years ago, I got serious and joined a coaching and mentorship program, which I’m still part of today. It’s also where I get the tools I use to run everything: my website, email system, and page builder. That’s when real progress started: my first email subscriber, my first online sale, and my first dollars from digital products. Along the way, I built traction on Quora, then had my account shut down and had to start over on TikTok.

After all that trial and error, I’m convinced that building an online business, even as a side hustle, is one of the best ways to earn extra income. Not a quick gig you have to keep starting over, but something of your own that you can work on, grow, and keep building.

And the skills go beyond digital products. Marketing, communication, and sales apply to any business, whatever you sell, and to life outside business too.

I’m still building it today, and this site documents the journey honestly while I’m still in it. If sharing what I’ve been through, and the tools that helped me, helps someone else find the extra income they’re looking for, or build something of their own, that would be a great accomplishment.

Start Here

If you’re new, these are the best places to begin:

The Free Video That Helped Me Understand the Process

For years, building an online business felt like dozens of disconnected tasks. What finally helped was understanding how the pieces fit together, and in what order.

This free video training from my mentor, Dean Holland, shows how you can start making money online as a total beginner, even if you have no experience or products of your own. It walks through the framework that changed how I approach my side hustle. Dean has spent more than two decades building an online business.

Enter your email on the next page, and the videos will be sent straight to your inbox. You’ll also get my Sidehustle newsletter, where I share what I’m learning and testing.

Watch the free Video

(This training is from my mentor, Dean Holland. If you later buy one of his programs, I may earn a commission.)

Follow the Journey

I’m currently working on the hardest part for me: traffic. On TikTok, I’m on the road to 1,000 followers, sharing what I try and what happens, every week.

follow along on tiktok

A Quick Note

I’m still building this in real time. Some things work. Some don’t.

But everything here is based on what I’m actually seeing, testing, and learning along the way.

Derek Spencer, Founder & Blogger

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