Side Project Ideas – The Ultimate List

Let’s share some side project ideas but first let me tell you this – I absolutely love side projects. 😻

Here’s why:

1. Side projects are a great way to, fuel your entrepreneurial footprint, validate ideas,
2. Side projects are also marketing tools and work as an alternative way to generate leads for your business and channels to attract your target audience.
3. Even for those who’re not into entrepreneurship or marketing, side projects are a great way to create new revenue streams.

That’s not all. Side Projects also have the potential of going BIG: Remember Groupon, Airbnb, Twitter, Instagram, AppSumo, Khan Academy, WeWork and Slack were all side-projects!

I’ve been involved in creating multiple side-projects for client campaigns or additional revenue streams and I’ve built an internal document with 100+ of the best side-project ideas.

I’m calling them side-projects as they’ve been my alternative focus areas but for many, they could turn into their primary business or startup.

Moreover, I’ve also reached out to the top-of-the-line marketers and entrepreneurs in my network and got their side-project ideas as well. I’ve put them together in one place so you can access it and start executing!

Next, Let’s start with the list of 101 side project ideas I’ve either brainstormed or executed over the past years:

1. Simple Web Scraper Tool
2. Net Worth Calculator & Tracker
3. Deal Aggregator
4. Random ‘X’ generator
5. Custom merchandise
6. Podcasts
7. Quiz-based apps
8. Marketing Checklists
9. Technology Checklists
10. Startup Checklists
11. Email Course
12. Stack-based Directory
13. Typeform-based Questionnaire
14. Blog Series Documenting a Live Campaign
15. Online Coaching
16. Collection Board Website Like a Pinboard
17. Online Magazine Monthly Subscription
18. Mini TA-focused Search Engine
19. NGO Driven From Main Business Profits
20. Influencer Directory
21. Freelancer Directory
22. Startups Directory
23. Price Comparison App
24. Marketing Audits
25. Tech Audits
26. Startup Audits
27. General Audits
28. Offline Group Building & Activities
29. Freebie Curator
30. Ebooks
31. Pill Tracker
32. First Aid Checklist
33. Online First Aid Course
34. Destination-Wise Checklists for Travelers
35. Interest Amount Calculator
36. “Books to Read Before you Die” Checklists & Directory
37. Cocktail Recipe Directory
38. Tinder for ‘X’
39. Uber for ‘X’
40. Dog Name Generator
41. Cat Name Generator
42. Startup Name Generator
43. Random Travel Destination Suggestion App
44. What’s hot and new on Netflix?
45. What’s hot on Reddit?
46. What’s hot on ‘X’?
47. Online Teaching On Udemy-Like Sites
48. Social Media Design Service
49. Logo Design Service
50. Phone Cases Store
51. Virtual Assistance
52. Sell Premium Photos Online
53. WordPress-based Websites
54. Online Consultation
55. Project Management Tool for ‘X’
56. Job Board for ‘X’
57. WP Plugin Development
58. Hosting Reseller
59. Bucket List for ‘X’
60. Idea Generator for ‘X’
61. One ‘X’ a Day
62. Random Quote Generator
63. Quotes on ‘X’
64. Hashtags Generator
65. Font Suggestor
66. Chrome Extension for ‘X’
67. Stock Images Curator
68. Template for ‘X’
69. The Ultimate List of ‘X’
70. Co-working Space Finder
71. Company Culture Quiz
72. Engagement Rate Calculator
73. Ad Budget Calculator
74. Best Emails Directory
75. App or Website Quiz
76. Website/App Budget Calculator
77. Project ‘X’ Budget Calculator
78. ProductHunt for ‘X’
79. Groupon for ‘X’
80. Visa Guide for ‘X’ Country
81. Investing Checklist for ‘X’ investment
82. An Event Calendar for ‘X’
83. Productivity Timer
84. Game Development
85. Generate Ideas as a Service
86. Top Alternatives for ‘X’ Suggestor
87. Trello-based Ideaboards
88. The Ultimate Guide to ‘X’
89. A Collection of Pitch Decks
90. A Collection of ‘X’
91. A Map for ‘X’
92. Online Subscription-for-Content Website
93. Free Strategy Session
94. Free Consulting Session
95. Newsletter-Based Community Building
96. The Playbook of ‘X’
97. The Product Launch Checklist
98. The Best ‘X’ from 2018
99. Video Series on One ‘X’ a Day
100. 100 Days of ‘X’
101. Affiliate on Products

Moreover, let’s look at the contributions from some of my friends:

Abhash Kumar – Head of Marketing at SpringWorks

Side projects are a treasure trove for leads!  Some of the side project ideas: 1. A highly-curated, focused session on solving business problems for a select set of people. It can be a great way to generate leads for your agency business. Bring 10 people together and lead a case-study style 3-4 hour session where participants solve each other’s problems. 2. A newsletter that curates and sends the top events to attend for a particular week – can be based on a particular niche or theme. Even at Springworks, we work on anywhere between 3-5 side projects that can get us a new set of users and also eventually feed into the main products. CrimeMonitor – a tool to get notified if you have any pending court cases and RefCheck – RefCHECK will issue a one-pager Reference Check with a thorough understanding of the candidate.

Deepan Siddhu – Director at Neil Patel Digital India

“Great effort Rishabh. I propose WordPress templates, Top 10 Product Reviews, Device Mockup Generator”

Anatu Das – Founder at Creative Filament

Great list 👍🏻 I’m working on my own side projects too – Customized CMS built with Laravel, Price comparison web app, A wildlife photography blog integrated with a forum. These are in my to-do list this year.

Salman Ravoof – Content Creator at WPMU DEV

1. A list app but only for links. And the lists should be shareable. It can be anything: GIFs, Videos, Shopping links, etc.  2. GIFs Creator which can pull the free image and vector resources across the web. And the GIFs live on to be used by everyone else.  3. Launch a WordPress website in 5 mins. This can be done through Digital Ocean or AWS as a backend, but it needs to be more intuitive and managed. Most managed hosts do exactly this but charge like $20+ for just creating $5 DO droplets.  4. Zapier + Anything – I’m still mind-blown by the possibilities here.  5. A replacement for FB and all its products (just kidding 😛 )

Kumar Anirudha – Co-Founder at Acyclic Labs

1. Bots (FB, twitter, telegram) to manage members and post updates. 2. News aggregator site. It can also be extended to become a newsletter. 3 Alexa voice apps. A lot can be done with this. 4. Email app with filters to notify on specific stuff. This would need a custom SMTP server. 5. P2P video chat. 6. Chat aggregation app. An app that can connect all my chats from WhatsApp, telegram, facebook messenger, signal, slack, discord and so on into one single window. If possible also reply from here.

On the whole, those are some of the ideas you can start working on – expert verified!

What’s more?

I’ve compiled the complete sheet of side project ideas with over 100 ideas and the tools you can use to execute them.

And so, you can visit this link to get access to the complete sheet.

Download it and start executing!

Update: New side project ideas have just come in from my network. Read them below and make sure you submit your own ideas in the comments of this blog to get featured on the idealist.

Himanshu Sharma: Another side project that I can think of is a Reddit Scrapper to get the best possible answers related to any topic. Most of the Subreddits are now messed up with general question answers.

Tejas Rane: My Side Project Ideas Including Building Informational Products in Targeted Niche, Affiliate Marketing on a Hyper-Targeted Audience. Btw Great List and Would love to know more about your side project ideas.

Pravin Singh: Awesome list! Very true, my entire business was a side project once upon a time during my old job. It’s the perfect way to get your hands dirty and then dive deeper. Here are some of my side projects that worked well: Affiliate business for data products by adding great content on it that I’ve personally worked on, Tech products affiliate marketing that I’ve personally used and tested heavily, Freelance projects on interesting data problems.

Punit Mahajan: Great list of side projects. My friend builts these mini android apps mostly for the Hindi-speaking audience. Makes a good side income via apps like quote apps, etc.

Zsuzsanna Kisvardai: I taught English as a side gig while I studied. But it became my first business pretty soon.

Christopher Vadakkel: Python to create API’s to be integrated with Facebook/Google (Inspired from you), Create training module products which will open up another revenue stream for my company.

Finally, submit your ideas in the comments and click here to download the complete idea sheet.

SEE ALSO: 75+ startup directories to submit your startup listing