Are you looking to start a side hustle as a counselor because you don’t have enough savings from your day job?
Well, you are not alone in this, here are a few key statistics you must know before you read further (source: elvtr)
- Nearly 30% of people are struggling financially to pay their student loan debts.
- The 3 most common mental health issues noticed among the respondents were Anxiety (56%), Depression (32%), and Insomnia (20%).
- Around 60% of Americans have been found to be earning less than those without a degree.
This goes to say that people are struggling financially under debt, despite having degrees and earning their income from their day job.
So, what can possibly be a good solution for this?
Well, starting a side hustle along with your day job as a counselor can be the best route to add alternative sources of income at the end of each month.
Today, we are going to talk about 11 Best Side Hustles to start as counselors in 2022.
Let’s get started with the first one…
In this Guide
List of Side Hustle Ideas as counselors
Before we dive deep into each of the side hustles as a counselor, here’s a quick summary of what we will discuss today:
| Start a Blog | Earn at least $1000 per month as a beginner |
| Create a YouTube Channel | Make up to $500 per month starting out |
| Sell ebooks or guides | Earn $4 – $5 per ebook |
| Start a Podcast | Around $37 per patron |
| Become a freelance content writer | $10 – $100 per gig |
| Create a Print on Demand store | $27 per tees |
| Start teaching to others | $22.29 per hour |
| Register on platforms seeking professional help | Upto $600 per month as a counsellor |
| Freelance as a career counsellor | $10 – $45 per gig |
| Get paid talking to others | Upto $15 per hour |
| Make money to cuddle someone | $60 – $100 per hour |
Let’s start with my favorite side hustle, i.e. BLOGGING.
Start a Blog
Blogging is one of the best side hustles as a counselor and one of the best mediums to connect with customers that can bring business.
Starting a blog not only can bring revenue but also has the potential to create untapped opportunities not explored earlier.
Why do I think so?
Well, a blog is like a virtual shop open for you 24 x 7 where people from across the globe can come to visit your shop anytime.
Now as the shop owner (being the blogger), it’s up to you what you decide on 2 things:
- What do you decide to sell
- How well do you sell what you decide to sell
Let’s dig further on this below…
Why start a blog as a side hustle for counselors
Let’s understand the importance of a blog from this simple example.
Source: Adam Enfroy
If you are a career counselor, the primary task involved in your day job is counseling people on making choices on the right career path, right?
But, did you know that some potential customers would also be interested to know further on the following:
- How to build a career as a career counselor?
- How much can you earn from your day job as a career counselor?
- How to get your first client as a career counselor?
If you are able to answer all of these from your blog, then there’s scope to make money out of it.
Being a counselor, you know you had the same questions when you started out, didn’t you?
So why not share the same stuff on a blog and make money online in the process.
Moreover, blogging provides one of the best ways to make money sitting behind the computer, especially if you are an introvert.
Are you an extrovert? If yes, then the next side hustle is for you.
Ways to make money from a blog
Did you know that there are nearly 21 ways to make money from a blog?
Here we have listed 4 most common forms of monetizing the content:
| Runnings ads on the blog | $5 – $10 RPM |
| Being an affiliate for a counseling-related product | Up to $100 per client |
| Selling leads to a client | $5 – $10 per lead |
| Partnering for running ad spots on your blog | $100 – $200 per month (based on traffic) |
Besides above, you can sell ebooks or guides from your blog on a lot of different products and make money from it too (discussed later).
Here’s a quick video from Income School discussing ways to make money from a Blog
Create a YouTube channel
The biggest competitor to bloggers is perhaps YouTubers who drive massive followings to their channel with their content…🙂
Source: Adam Enfroy
This is one of the best things about the internet, everyone has a fair chance of playing the game even.
Why start a YouTube channel as a side hustle as a counselor
If you are a person who is an extrovert and not camera shy, then YouTube might be the best-fit side hustle for you as a counselor.
Being an extrovert and putting your face out there definitely helps connect with your audience and build your identity in the long run.
While at the same time there are millions of YouTube channels that are running completely as a faceless channel.
Source: YouTube
YouTube has a projected growth rate of 27.41% till 2025 to reach up to 2.85 Billion users worldwide.
This shows the potential that you have from this amazing platform and the people you can connect to from your videos.
Some of the common topics that you can cover in your YouTube videos include (source: SEEK learning)
- A day in the life of a counselor?
- How long does it take to become a counselor?
- Types of counseling services to offer, etc.
Let’s look at the ways you can make money from a YouTube channel based on counseling.
Ways to make money from a counseling channel on YouTube
Ways of monetization are quite similar to a blog, except the medium is different.
4 ways best-suited methods of monetization from YouTube are:
- Running ads on the channel
- Selling affiliate-related products
- Providing counseling services personally to the clients
- Partnering with other content creators on YouTube, etc.
As this is a visual-based platform, meaning people would watch videos, thus it provides a personal level of connection to people.
An example of how you can leverage your audience for better revenue generation is as follows.
Let’s say you took help from a graphic designer who created a thumbnail image for your video.
If the graphic designer happens to sell any courses related to graphic designing, then it can be linked underneath the video for people to follow through.
This can be a potential partnership where you can earn additional revenue as an affiliate income or directly partner as a 50% partner selling the courses for the graphic designer…😎
Sell ebooks or guides
Digital products are the best products to scale passive income month on month.
An ebook or a guide is the best way to achieve this, especially if you are a counselor.
Source: teacherspayteachers
Here’s a great example of the ebooks being sold by Heather, who runs a blog publishing content on Helpful counseling for kids.
She has got over 89 products listed in her store as of writing this article.
Some of the best sellers of ebooks listed in her store are priced in the range of $2.5 – $8 per ebook.
This is a really great side hustle as a counselor, be it a woman or a man.
The popular products in the store have crossed over 469 sales.
The best part about selling such ebooks is that you need to make the product and you can resale the stuff over and over again in the market.
When it would require corrections, you can update the same over a period of time.
This can also be monetized alongside a blog or a YouTube and it can bring revenue long-term.
Start a Podcast
Next up we are going to talk about a podcast.
Do you have a strong commanding voice or feel that people listen more often to you when you speak?
If yes, then podcasting can be an awesome side hustle for you as a counselor.
This industry is going to see a massive shift in the user base with future estimations that are going to touch around 505 million users in the next 2 years.
Source: Graphtreon
How much money can you make from a podcast as a counselor?
This is a podcast channel of Evan The Counselor, who is a Mental Health Professional, Educator, Author, and Entrepreneur.
He runs a podcast channel and talks about mental health issues and their importance.
We can see he makes roughly around $186 per month from the support of 5 Patrons who support his motive.
As he will keep growing the channel and the content on the platform more and more people will start connecting to him in the long run.
This is just a glimpse of what you can accomplish by being consistent on this side hustle of running a podcast channel as a counselor.
This is another side hustle that one can look to take up as a college student.
What type of podcast can you make as a counselor?
You can create your own podcast channel and talk about several stuff such as:
- What do you get to do on a daily basis?
- What are the major causes of illness faced by the people in society?
- How to stay motivated and have a positive attitude in life and much more.
When the audience starts to resonate well with you, slowly you will also be able to figure out the ways of making money out of it as well.
How much cost is required to get started with podcasting as a counselor?
This can be a low-cost business if you simply decide to start with basic gigs or may need up to $500 to get started with proper equipment in place.
Become a freelance content writer
A content writer is the backbone of every business operating in the world.
Any product or service that anyone is trying to sell requires written out content or a script before they are launched onto the market.
Even as a counselor, when you are looking to acquire clients you would need to do many things which require content writers:
- Selling ebooks,
- Content creation on your websites
- Writing a medical journal or a publication in a magazine or
- Any other form of online presence would require written content.
Since we are living in a content creator economy, good content writers are always high in demand.
This is a perfect side hustle as a counselor if you don’t want to set up your own blog, but would like to write for others.
Source: Fiverr
As a beginner content writer, you can expect to make around $10 – $100 for each gig that you write online.
The best way to approach work as a content writer is through LinkedIn or Facebook groups, where you can showcase your sample work upfront to the interest of people.
Fiverr or Upwork can definitely help you give you the desired reach as a freelancer starting out.
Create a Print on Demand store
Print on Demand is another wonderful side hustle idea that counselors can definitely look to pursue.
Essentially all you need is to put some wonderful designs that can be imprinted onto any form of merchandise such as:
- Tees
- Mugs
- Caps
- Notebooks
- Pillows etc.
There are so many options available out there that can help you sell your products over the internet delivering the same onto the doorstep of your customer.
Source: Ebay
This product is a teeshirt which has sold over so many times on the internet.
The pricing is a standard $27 and this has sold over 93 times on eBay.
This is just one example of something selling as merchandise online.
If you have a website or a YouTube channel, you can integrate the same with e-commerce products and sell it from your end as well.
There are several free platforms which can help you get started such as:
- Teespring
- Redbubble etc.
Start teaching others
As a counselor, there are many things you can do as a tutor.
There are so many fields and so many subjects to take upon as a tutor, and the opportunities are always endless.
For the people who want to get into counseling as a profession, you can take upon the subjects that they want to learn and teach the same to them as well.
You can apply to universities or other colleges that are looking for teachers and get started as a professor.
There is no certain one-way route for you to get started here, as there can be more than one way to look at it.
Besides colleges and universities, you can also look for opportunities locally where you can take up any such position available.
The average salary for a student counselor is around $22.29 per hour as reported in 2022, with a yearly package of $51319.
You can opt to do the services during the weekend if you are running on a tight schedule.
Register on platforms seeking counseling help
There are so many platforms out there that are actively seeking counselors to offer their services to others.
Source: Manastha
Many platforms seek for professional help of experts who are willing to provide counseling sessions to others for a fee.
Here’s a quick summary of the platforms and the expected pay rates for providing consultation services:
| BetterHelp | $240 – $600 per month |
| TalkSpace | $260 to $400 a month and $125-$199 for psychiatric services |
| ReGain | $240 to $320 per month |
| Wellnite | $75 to $350 per month |
| PrideCounselling | $240 to $360 per month |
| Teladoc Health | $99 for each therapy session, $209 for having initial psychiatry appointments, and $109 for each follow-up (without insurance) |
| Circles | $79 per month |
| Monument | Up to $249 per month |
| Online Therapy | $160 – $320 per month |
| Ayana Therapy | $140 per single session or $290 per monthly subscriptions |
Source: verywellmind
The above platforms provide an incredible opportunity for counselors to provide their services being counselors.
What really matters is how soon are you looking to grab this opportunity for yourself.
Freelance as a career counselor
Freelancing as a career counselor is also one of the ways to start earning quick bucks online.
Fiverr is a great place to start freelancing as it offers a wide scope and ample opportunities to look into as a freelancer as well.
Source: Fiverr
Starting out as a career counselor won’t be tough especially if you have hands-on experience working in the field.
You can expect to make around $10 – $45 per gig and even up to $190 as a pro-verified freelancer working in the field as a career counselor.
It definitely takes time to get going but, once you are up for the challenge you can start expanding your opportunities on a larger scale.
Get Paid talking to others
This is another unique side hustle for counselors where they can get paid for talking to others.
People are getting lonelier with each passing day and this is getting more intense as time is passing by.
Stats say that there will be a rise of 43% of people who will feel lonely by the year 2025 to reach up to 2 million.
The situation is worse with women who feel lonelier than the men around them.
This is why many platforms have come up where people can talk to others to comfort them in their loneliness.
As a counselor, this can be something that you would be good at while you can make money in the process as well.
How much money can you make talking to others?
Here are some of the platforms which pay money for talking to others:
| Papa | Up to $15 per hour for visiting a client |
| FriendPC | Up to $100 for providing life coach services |
| RentAFriend | Starts at $10 per hour for rent a friend |
| RentACyberFriend | Starts at $0.1 per minute for using RentACyberFriend |
| Freelancer | Earn up to $1000 per month |
| ChatRecruit | Earn $2 – $5 for using ChatRecruit and talking to people |
| Phrendly | Up to $0.35 per volley of chat |
| Mygirlfund | 1 credit earned for every message reply ($1) |
| FlirtBucks | Up to $0.5 per min for video chatting |
| PremiumChat | Earn up to a $50 flat rate for chatting to others |
| JustAnswer | Earn in the range of $5 – $15 per sale or conversion of client |
| TheChatShop | Makeup to $10 per hour for chatting on TheChatShop |
Source: Make money talking to others
Make money to cuddle someone
When was the last time you cuddled someone?
Cuddling is so important in life as we embrace or hug someone we convey a feeling of love to others.
Today, cuddlers are working professionally to make money and this is not known anymore.
In fact, top-level professional cuddlers are earning up to $60 – $100 per hour cuddling someone professionally.
How much money can you make to cuddle
There are so many platforms that help people find opportunities to make money cuddling someone professionally, such as:
| Cuddlist | At least $60 per hour for a cuddle |
| Cuddle Comfort | Earn $80 per hour for a cuddle |
| CuddleUp | Makeup to $100 per hour using CuddleUp |
| CertifiedCuddlers | At least of $60 per hour for a cuddle |
| CuddleParty | Up to $30 for a session of cuddling |
| CuddleSanctuary | Earn up to $200 per hour for a cuddle |
| CuddleUptome | Up to $300 per hour for booking a cuddle service |
| SnuggleSalon | Up to $100 per hour for cuddling services |
| The Snuggle | Makeup to $425 for an overnight cuddle |
| CuddleChampions | Earn up to $80 per hour for a 2-hour cuddle |
Source: Get Paid to Cuddle
Final Words on Side Hustle as Counselors
Starting a side hustle as a counselor can be a really great way to build wealth long term.
What matters is how long are you willing to put in the effort and have the patience to make it happen.
The sad fact is that 92% of people reading this will FAIL in their side hustle. WHY SO???
Because they are already running late to TAKE MASSIVE ACTION !!!
“The path to success is to take massive determined action”, says Tony Robbins (who needs no
introduction).
So how do you start taking MASSIVE ACTION? Simply getting 1 STEP ahead of others.
Do share with us your thoughts on what you are looking for as a side hustle being a counselor.