Why I Still Believe in Boring Online Hustles (And Why You Probably Should Too)

There’s something exhausting about the internet’s obsession with speed. Everything’s a sprint now: flip this fast, scale in 30 days, make six figures from your phone while you sleep. I get it. The hustle cultureis seductive. But after watching a lot of people try, win, burn out, or quietly disappear. I’ve come to appreciate something slower, quieter, and honestly more sustainable.

I’m talking about the boring stuff. The niche skills and digital tools that don’t go viral but pay the bills. The projects that grow in the background while you’re busy with life. The kind of side hustle that doesn't explode but doesn’t implode either.

I started noticing this a few years ago when I began tracking what kind of online work actually stuck around. Not the big launches or hyped platforms, but the people quietly running browser extensions, selling spreadsheets, licensing illustrations, running niche Discord servers, or building communitiesaround weirdly specific interests.

None of them were flashy. Most didn’t call themselves entrepreneurs. But they had figured out how to make the internet work with their lives, not in place of them.

I think about one guy who made a free Chrome extension for exporting Amazon wishlists. Nothing special, just something useful. Over time, it grew to 40,000+ users. He monetized with a $10 Pro version. I asked him how much time he spends on it each month.

"About two hours. Mostly support."

That’s it. And yet it’s paying his rent.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t chase big wins. But the internet has this habit of making everyone feel behind. Like if you’re not building the next AI app or selling NFTs to billionaires, you’re wasting time.

That mindset leads to burnout. Or worse, chasing trends you don’t care about.

But a side hustle that aligns with your actual interests? That leverages what you already enjoy, and grows over time? That’s different. That’s leverage you can live with.

Online communities have taught me that there’s power in small, consistent efforts. You post. You test. You iterate. Sometimes it clicks. Sometimes it doesn’t. But over time, you build digital assets, tools, content, products that work when you don’t.

It’s not magic. It’s just momentum.

And yeah, it’s slower than the "zero to hero" stories you see on TikTok. But it’s also real. And real lasts.

So no, I’m not quitting my job to chase some overnight exit. But I’m still building. Still experimenting. Still trying things that make sense to me, even if they’re not shiny enough for headlines.

That’s the game I want to keep playing.