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I Made $148K in a Year: How This Online Marketplace Helped Me Create a Lucrative Side Gig

November 20, 2024

4 min Read

Written by Andrew Lisa

Edited by Zuri Anderson

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Some side hustlers are using their green thumbs to grow an even greener secondary income stream from a relatively small startup seed.

Palmstreet, a unique marketplace for buying and selling plants, is letting everyday users build reliable — and even six-figure — revenue streams with little to no experience.

Success requires commitment, effort and a moderately substantial up-front investment. However, ordinary hobbyists with no expertise and modest resources are using the site to grow a lush source of financial security with deep roots.

Going Greenhouse: Hustling a Herbaceous Hobby

Palmstreet is a marketplace where buyers can find unique plants, rare crystals, crafts like pottery and even live geckos — all sold by side hustlers making their hobbies pay.

Sellers have two options for reaching interested buyers: They can place traditional listings on the platform’s marketplace or interact with them directly through scheduled livestream auctions.

For a full-time IT analyst named Leena Pettigrew, selling through livestream sessions was the key to earning nearly $150,000 on the side in her very first year.

CNBC interviewed Pettigrew as part of its “Six-Figure Side Hustle” series, and she explained how she turned a fixation with an out-of-control houseplant into a $148,600 bonus in 365 days.

Jack’s Beanstalk Leads to a Golden Goose

Pettigrew didn’t work her way up to six figures after a long spell of trial and error. She only joined Palmstreet in 2023 after houseplants from a 2022 redecorating project outgrew her space and patience.

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When her Monstera plants soared beyond eight feet, she looked for ways to sell them online — and her search led her to Palmstreet. Posting them for sale among more than 1 million Palmstreet Marketplace listings allowed Pettigrew to trade her gargantuan Monsteras for cash.

However, her side hustle began in earnest when she committed to doing what it took to become a dedicated Palmstreet seller.

You Can Sell a Hobby for Free or Invest in a Botanical Business

The platform lets users sign up and start selling for free and charges a comparatively low seller fee of 2.9% per sale. However, users need to complete an application and be approved to become live sellers.

That’s where Pettigrew found that the real money was hiding — but she had to spend money to make money.

Palmstreet has cultivated a competitive marketplace, and Pettigrew learned she had to invest about $1,000 upfront to build sufficient inventory for Palmstreet to take her seriously enough to accept her application.

She spends roughly 20 hours per week sourcing merchandise, conducting selling sessions and packaging and shipping to buyers across the country. She also has ongoing expenses and she had to learn how to conduct successful livestreams — but she now makes roughly 100 sales during each of her two weekly live auctions.

Different Tiers for Different Levels of Hustle

Palmstreet offers three price tiers, depending on the features you need.

Shop fees are the percentage paid to Palmstreet per Marketplace listing sale, like the kind Pettigrew used to sell her initial Monstera plants.

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Purge is a feature that lets sellers quickly offload excess inventory at clearance rates. Live are the livestream sessions that let higher-level players move inventory frequently in large batches during auctions they host online.