'Side Hustle' without the Hustle? Earnings August 2025

By bluekasumi | bluekasumi | 7 Sep 2025

I’m starting this new format to give a realistic view on earning passive income with side hustles. If you are like me, the time to dedicate to a side hustle while also having a day job and managing other tasks and chores each day is often very limited to non-existent. In the following report I will break-down my favorite side hustles and how much time and energy I invested to get to those results. Let’s get started!

YouTube

As a consumer I spend quite some time on YouTube everyday for entertainment, information, cooking recipes and inspiration.
As a creator on the other hand I struggle to create content at the moment.
Despite many ideas the priorities lie on the Jobs that bring in guaranteed money. The main goal right now is to stay part of the YouTube Partner Program and post at least once in the next 3 to 6 months.
Monthly Earnings: $0,20

Adobe Stock

Contributors on Adobe Stock are paid less than 10% of what the buyers are getting charged. The earnings are even dependent on the buyers subscription model. Earnings per sold image vary between either $0.33 or $0.97. Definitely not a fair deal for or any photographer or creative who paid for equipment, software, model, travel or studio expenses and put in the working hours.
Monthly Earnings: $0.97

Honeygain

The only hope on the horizon of hide hustles. I use Honeygain on my laptop and smartphone everyday. Sometimes it even works in public wi-fi’s while working in a coffee shop. Honeygain makes use of your unused internet bandwidth. Leave your phone on and the Honeygain App running at night and you can basically earn 24/7. Expect a few cents a day, but for long-term users the consistency will definitely pay-off. I’m a user since 2020 and hat several pay-outs throughout the years.
Learn more about Honeygain in my article Publish0x: https://www.publish0x.com/bluekasumi/two-best-ways-to-earn-passive-income-with-your-computer-in-2-xwvpkzz
Monthly Earnings: $6.50

Medium

Medium of course is also a way to earn some extra income, though as may writers have pointed out the earning potential has significantly decreased. Some recent articles I wrote got barely any interactions which diminished my motivation quite a lot. It doesn’t do a great job delivering content to potential audiences like YouTube. All in all Mediums business model might not work out that well and writers als looking to give new platforms a try.
Monthly Earnings: $0.02

These four are basically the only side hustles that have generated any money in August 2025. Adding everything up that is $7.69. Honeygain added the biggest value with the least amount of effort.

Are you surprised by the numbers? Did you have more success with the same or others side hustles? I appreciate any interactions and please leave some support if you enjoyed this article. Thank you for reading!
– AoiKasumi