The Side Hustle Lab

Documenting what works
and what doesn’t

Eight income stream experiments running in parallel. Real numbers published honestly — including the zeros, the slow starts and the experiments that are taking longer than expected.

3Live Now
5Coming Soon
£18.94Total Revenue
8Experiments Total
Currently Running
Live Experiments
01
Live KDP Self-Publishing

Amazon KDP — Children’s Book

Publishing a children’s paperback and Kindle book on Amazon KDP UK with zero upfront cost. The book is built around a real character — Maverick, our cockapoo — with a dedicated Instagram account, website and email list built alongside it. The hypothesis: a character-first approach builds a compounding audience that a product-first approach cannot.

Copies sold7
Total royalties£18.82
Per paperback£2.80
Per Kindle£2.31
Reviews3
Instagram2,158
Hypothesis
A children’s picture book built around a real character can generate both direct sales and a community audience that compounds over time.
Current Verdict
Proof of concept confirmed. Seven real sales. Three reviews. Platform works. Traffic and reviews are the next constraints to solve.
Next Actions
Book 2 in development. Colouring and activity book in development. Review count is the priority milestone: target ten reviews.
02
Live Selling Digital Content

Digital Products — Payhip & Gumroad

Digital products listed on Payhip and Gumroad: a 150+ prompt workbook, an 800+ AI tools directory and a 9-chapter Whiteout Survival strategy guide. Products compiled from genuine research. The hypothesis: a well-organised digital reference generates passive sales through organic discovery. The constraint so far: traffic, not product quality.

PlatformsPayhip, Gumroad
Products live3
Product views48
Sales0
Revenue£0
Reddit reach16k
Hypothesis
Curated digital products generate passive sales through organic platform discovery and targeted community participation.
Current Verdict
Traffic is the constraint, not the product. 48 views at a standard conversion rate was never going to produce a sale. Focus shifts entirely to traffic.
Next Actions
SEO blog content targeting specific search queries. Reddit community participation. Pinterest as a long-tail traffic source. Email list building.
03
Live Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing — Amazon & Direct Programmes

Embedding genuine affiliate links naturally within honest product reviews across both the DRS and Mavericks Adventures blogs. Amazon Associates for book and product recommendations. Direct affiliate programmes for higher commission rates. The rule: only recommend products we have actually used and genuinely rate.

PlatformsAmazon, Direct
Posts live2
Revenue£0.12
StageEarly
Hypothesis
Affiliate links embedded naturally in genuine reviews generate a secondary revenue layer without additional product creation.
Current Verdict
Too early for meaningful data. £0.12 is the starting point every affiliate marketer recognises. A compounding model — requires traffic before it produces consistent returns.
Next Actions
More review posts across both blogs. Build the content library before expecting returns. Affiliate income compounds with traffic, not time alone.
Coming Soon
04

Earn by Playing Games

Testing Inbox Pounds, Earnlabs, Prograd and Freecash with one week per platform and identical time investment. Real hourly rate calculations published. Launching once all platform flows are tested and verified end-to-end.

Coming Soon
05

Cashback

Two weeks on Quidco, two weeks on TopCashback. Same spending behaviour, same time period. Direct head-to-head comparison with real earnings figures. Launching alongside Test 04.

Coming Soon
06

Surveys

Survey platforms tested with identical time investment. Multiple platforms including those that overlap with the gaming apps in Test 04. Real hourly rate calculated and published.

Coming Soon
07

Remote Working & Freelancing

Fiverr CV and document rewriting service. AI-assisted workflow, fast delivery, transparent pricing. No paid promotion to start — organic discovery only for the first 90 days.

Coming Soon
08

Earn While You Spend

Cashback on purchases, matched offers and platform-specific purchase deals that generate a return on things you would buy anyway. Testing the profit margins on specific offers with full transparency on what was spent and what was returned.

Coming Soon
The rules every experiment follows
01

Documented Structure

Every test gets the same format: hypothesis, what was done, numbers, verdict. No exceptions.

02

Honest Numbers

Results published as they are — including zeros, failures and slow starts. Nothing edited out.

03

No Abandoned Tests

No experiment gets quietly dropped. If something is stopped, the reason is published.

04

Free First

Every experiment starts on free tools. Paid tools only if they demonstrably improve results — disclosed when used.

05

Living Document

Numbers update as experiments develop. This page reflects the current state, not the launch state.

06

Sequence Not Scatter

Fewer experiments done properly rather than many experiments done poorly. Quality of data matters.

Follow the experiments as they develop

Get the free guide covering every active test, the full toolkit and the honest numbers. Updated when things change.

Get the Free Guide