5 Side Business Ideas for Flight Attendants – 2020

The pandemic has disrupted businesses all over the world, and the travel industry is one of the worst-hit – flights are at an all-time low as travel restrictions are in place and demand for air travel has gone down enormously. This has left a lot of flight attendants and cabin crew members with low flying hours, and more time to look for business ideas to venture into, as a side business to compensate for the loss of income, or simply to kill time.

If you’re a flight attendant or cabin crew member in the same situation, or you’re just looking for side business ideas to earn extra money, we’ve put together a collection of simple ways to start a business to supplement your income.

5 Online Business Ideas You Can Start With a Laptop

Create handmade goods

Teach an online course

Start a podcast

Try your hand at affiliate marketing

Start a blog

• Create handmade goods – If you’re the artsy and crafty type, you can try your hand at selling some of your handmade products. You can make and sell anything that you want – jewelry, furniture, home décor items or even greeting cards. The idea is to monetize your skills and grow your business online. You can set up your online store on Etsy or Shopify, which are catered to drive traffic to new businesses. The set up process is super simple, you can reach a large audience, and have your metrics tracked for you – all at a minimal listing fee.
• Teach an online course – This is one of the best low-investment business ideas for generating passive income. Although it requires some effort up front, if you manage to design a popular, high-value video tutorial series, you would make money on an ongoing basis as people continue to enroll in your course. Vonza lets you create beautiful and engaging courses, allows your customers and students to easily enroll and view curriculum and preview before making purchases.
• Start a podcast – Podcast listenership continues to grow drastically every year. According to Edison Research, 40% of Americans aged 12 and above have listened to a podcast in 2017 while 24% say they have listened to at least one in the past month, up from 21% from the year before.

To start a podcast, at a bare minimum, all you need to do is:

• • Come up with a concept (topics that you want to talk about, a name for your podcast, and the length you want each episode to be).
  • Write a description for your podcast that captures your “brand”. You can also exercise your creativity and design some artwork to further establish your personal brand.
  • Now just speak! For beginners, just use your phone to record and edit your audio files, before moving onto more sophisticated equipment like a microphone.
  • Find a place to host them (websites that specialize in podcast hosting are Anchor, Buzzsprout or Podbean).

To promote your podcast, you can collaborate with prominent figures by interviewing them, or co- hosting. Encourage listeners to actively leave reviews and share your podcast with their connections.

• Try your hand at affiliate marketing – Affiliate marketing is when you promote a product or service by sharing it among your connections, like your blog or social media, to your email list, on your websites or other channels. Each time someone converts through your referral link or code, you earn a commission as a result of it. There are many benefits to this kind of marketing, including low startup costs, no product support requirement, and a flexible schedule.

To start out, find an affiliate program that suits your interests, personal brand, and the audience you want to target. ShareASale, CJ Affiliate and ClickBank are some solid options. Not surprisingly Amazon is always a go-to for any affiliate store, so is the Shopify Affiliate Program.

Once you’ve signed up, start sharing. However, be careful not to stuff multiple affiliate links into your post as this may alienate readers looking for valuable content. For an affiliate program to work successfully, make sure to strike a balance between user experience and money making.

• Start a blog – Blogging has, undoubtedly, transformed into a marketing and even monetization tool. There are multiple ways to earn money from a blog – from publishing sponsored posts to hosting third-party ads, or even selling your own products.

To start a blog, get started with these basic four steps:

• Pick a niche and a name – Your blog’s niche would be the market/ topic you will be targeting. This can be anything that you are passionate about, or want to spread more awareness about. When it comes to naming your blog, the options are limitless – it can be your first name, last name, a combination of keywords that capture the essence of your blog, your dog’s name – anything!
• Selecting a blogging platform – Now you need to find a blogging site where you will be creating your blog. You’ll need a platform that’s easy to set up, and doesn’t require a lot of coding skills. You’ll also need a platform that’s flexible to work with. There are many options to choose from, like Wix, Hostgator, and Squarespace, However, we recommend using Bluehost if you want to have full control over your blog’s future.
• Find web hosting and a domain – A web hosting provider is the foundation for your blog. Dreamhost, Hostinger and A2 Hosting are some really good options to choose from. A domain name is the name by which your blog will be known online – it’s a unique web address on the Internet.
• Designing and maintaining – You can design your blog as you want. Platforms like WordPress.org have many pre-designed free blog themes for you to choose from. You can customize them, based on your preferred layout and color combination.

For more information on getting started with blogging, check out these articles:

How to Choose a Blogging Platform insert link to “How to Choose a Blogging Platform” article

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Time to Breathe Life into Your Business Ideas

Running a side business is a lot easier said than done – but I’ve good news for you. Being your own boss, making your own hours, and working on projects that you actually care about will pay dividends for the rest of your life.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help throughout this process — we have plenty of resources and guides to support you along the journey.

Have questions about setting up your first online business? Sound off in the comments below.