The world is changing — and changing fast.
Whether it be the changes in telecommuting due to global pandemics or the displacement of 20 million traditional manufacturing and service jobs due to automation — we're seeing a new Industrial Revolution.
Let's call it, the Industrial Revolution 2.0.
In this new economy — things are going to look different. We're going to see a reduction in jobs that call for easily replicated practices:
- Manufacturing
- Customer service
- Entry-level jobs
I like to believe, where ever there is a problem — there seems to be an opportunity if we just look a little closer.
Did you know that according to McKinsey, 33% of new jobs created in the United States are for jobs that did not exist or barely existed 25 years ago?
Think about it — back at the end of the 19th Century, you had a position for someone who operated a horse & buggy.
That job doesn't exist anymore.
What took its place?
Well, it was the chauffeur, the cab driver, and then later the ride-share operator.
Those jobs are going to be displaced due to automation — what will follow in their footsteps? It's yet to be seen.
Another opportunity that can be recognized is the need to fill more creative jobs in the marketplace. Sure — artificial intelligence (AI) can perhaps get to a place where even creative jobs are at risk but we're probably decades from that.
Human creativity and ingenuity still trump in that realm.
One field, in particular, that's going to still be in relevant demand is that of a writer. The Hechingerreport, a non-profit news organization focused on education, notes that copywriting, technical writing and book authors appear to be safe due to their more creative role in our economy.
I really want to hammer in on the first two jobs that the Hechingerreport was talking about: technical writing and copywriting. These two areas of writing can fall into content writing. Content writing is a space in which you can build a side hustle. A side hustle is any method of supplementing income that doesn't entail your current main source of income.
That's what I want the focus of this article to be about — let's focus on the various ways you can develop a side hustle that grows to $1,000 a month (or more) but developing, nurturing, and blossoming a content writing career.
Let's take a look…
1. Writing content on paying platforms
This is the hottest girl at the dance right now.
Everyone and their mother knows that you can sign up on a platform like Medium, create a few articles, and make $100,000 and retire into the rising sunset.
Of course, it never goes like that…
But it can be a method to help you supplement some of your income. Medium is a platform that sees 60 million unique monthly users and keeps on growing. While it's advised that you actually become a paying Medium member (so you can read more stories and further your engagement with other writers) you can technically start making money without paying a dime.
Are you going to be rich overnight?
No.
But do you have a good chance of supplementing some of your income?
Absolutely. Medium notes that two-thirds of their writers who wrote at least one story made money and that almost 6% made $100 or more.
Now that might not sound like a lot of people — 6% — but when you consider there are 60 million unique users, the numerical value will make you think twice.
What's $100 worth?
I know for me that's:
- That's multiple times getting groceries
- Investment in a new online course
- Covering the costs of my email service provider
- Tickets to a concert
Plus, the more you write and produce on the platform — the more you can increase those earnings from $100 to $1,000 (and beyond).
The most crucial facet of this is that you write for an audience (as opposed to yourself) and you write in a fashion that helps that audience solve their problems.
A bonus with practicing this is it helps build a portfolio that can be leveraged into the next side hustle.
2. Writing content for paying freelance clients
Businesses need content.
Commerce is moving online and businesses need content in order to create organic narratives of their products and services. 70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing and 40% of marketers say content marketing is a very important part of their overall marketing strategy.
This organizational movement towards producing content is great for the side hustler like yourself.
More and more individuals are opting for freelance work as a means to help supplement their income. By 2027, it’s estimated that more than 50% of the U.S. workforce will be freelance workers (either full or part-time).
What's more — the global average hourly rate for freelancers is $19 an hour. This means if you want to make an extra $1,000 a month freelancing, you just need to work roughly 50 hours.
I've personally made tens of thousands of dollars doing freelance work. See the image below for some of my past earnings:
And here are some more payments from a different client:
Now I don't write all of this to brag or boast.
I've included all of this to show you that it's possible — I'm just a humble kid from the Midwest of the United States who started writing because he wanted to and the Universe answered and started to open up in return.
The best part of all of this?
I never once got on Indeed or Monster or Fiverr or any site like that trying to "pitch" my skills.
I got requests via email and Linkedin asking about my services.
I was sought out because, after months and years of creating content on the previously mentioned platform, businesses saw potential in me to help with their businesses.
It's even crazy for me to think that those two clients were in the real estate and home services industries.
Did I have any experience in those industries?
Hell no!
But I wasn't going to let that stop me. I did hundreds of hours researching the industries and now I have my own power cleaning business that I operate out of my mansion (totally kidding).
3. Selling your own proprietary digital products
I can add an additional 40% in my monthly earnings with the help of my proprietary digital products.
Do you know what I mean by that?
I mean by selling my ebook and online course — if I make $1,000 a month on a payment platform — I can make an extra $400 from the sale of digital products.
And my main product is sold for under $20…
That's because I'm helping the right people solve the right problem.
I didn't just create digital products in a vacuum.
I worked to solve the problems I was dealing with and now I educate others on how I solved those problems.
When you're writing on content platforms, you should be writing within a specific niche.
Take for instance budgeting and debt reduction:
- You were able to reduce your own credit card and student loan debt
- You created budget matrices that help individuals put certain percentages of their take-home into specific accounts
You can write content on that topic and create a packaged digital product that helps others solve those exact problems.
You can sell this through your email list and/or use the content that you create on the content platforms as your organic marketing engines.
Below you will see earnings from my Stripe account (non Medium).
Again — this is just written to show the possibility available.
Note the "spend per customer" at $23.09.
You don't need to create a $600 product and have it marketed to the world.
If you can create a modest product that helps people overcome the problems they're looking to solve — you can build a viable $1,000 side hustle.
There's a quote from a badass marketer that I live and breath by,
"Everyone is not your customer"
— Seth Godin
At first, it didn't make sense to me.
I thought,
"Well Seth, I want to get as many people as possible to be my customer. I mean think about it — there's over 7 billion people on the planet, wouldn't it be great if they were all my customer?"
But again, it comes back to solving the right problem for the right person.
Not everyone is going to buy Nike and not everyone is going to drink Coca-Cola (to use easy and broad examples).
Not everyone is going to buy (or even find useful) your product — but the people who do will benefit from its value.
***The next items on the list, I don't have personal experience with but I know they can make side hustle money due to real examples in my own network.
4. Online coaching
Online coaching is a growing industry.
It's noted that the industry grew to $1.02 billion in 2016 — compared to $707 million in 2011. The industry's valuation is estimated to reach $1.34 billion by 2022.
Furthermore, the average earnings for online coaches range between $27,100 to $73,100. Of course, that is for full-time online coaches. As a side hustler, you would expect to earn less than $73,100 starting out.
I have an individual in my network who just started her own nutrition coaching business and already has two paying customers!
Like the other aforementioned side hustles, you can use organic content as the driving force.
What is a problem that you can help people with?
If you can solve that problem and work one-on-one with individuals to help them solve it as well, you have an online coaching side hustle.
5. Podcasting
Several hours ago, I just got done doing a podcast with an amazing individual (thanks again, Iulia!).
I hope I'm not popping the top off her release — but she has an amazing podcast called, Skills for Mars that focuses on future changes in the economic landscape and skills and technologies that we're going to need to acquire and nurture if we're going to prosper in this new economy.
She still works full time in HR.
But she's building something right now that has the legs to be something that helps supplement her income (and potentially more).
Did you know that The Joe Rogan Experience started out because Joe and his friend Brian were bored?
Listen — I'm far from promising that you'll achieve that success, but what if you could use that podcasting platform as your marketing engine?
- What if you could gain enough of a following on YouTube that you could become monetized?
- What if the pod got big enough that you had advertisers coming to you paying you to promote their product (products you also believed in)?
And just when you thought about rolling your eyes and telling me,
"But Jon — the podcasting realm is way too saturated!"
Let me tell you that Statista notes there were approximately 88 million podcast listeners in 2019 and that number is expected to grow to 160 million by 2023.
That's literally doubling the potential audience for you in four years.
6. eCommerce and drop shipping
This one is a bit more tricky.
It's tricky for a couple of reasons:
- The 2020 pandemic has put a lot of strain on global supply chains
- It takes some initial investment in order to market your dropshipped product
If you do have some money to invest or perhaps already have a substantial social media following — this may work for you.
Dropshipping is literally taking products at wholesale pricing, whitelisting it with your brand, investing in digital advertising to market the product, and selling the newly whitelisted product at a premium.
Like I said, it does take some capital to get going, however, once things with global supply chains start to settle down and get back to as close to normalcy as possible — it is an opportunity to make some side hustle cash.
An individual in the apartment complex I live in Downtown Los Angeles has made a good side hustle income selling those battery-powered massage guns to his extended network and through Instagram partnerships.
It can be done.
Summing it all up
I'm not one for excuses.
I get why people have them — it's because it's easier to discard responsibility than to accept it.
There are too many reasons why you should start dabbling with a side hustle now.
You know — one of the most influential books I ever read was "Think & Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. It took him 25 years to write the book and he first published it during the height of the Great Depression.
He talks about a lot of things in the book but the one principle that had the most impact on me was that of Principle six: Organized Planning — take action.
Once you’ve imagined your success, you need to take action and chase after exactly what you want. You must act with persistence and enthusiasm. As Hill explains in the book,
"Opportunity has spread its wares before you. Step up to the front, select what you want, create your plan, put the plan into action, and follow through with persistence …
Most of us are good 'starters' but poor 'finishers' of everything we begin. Moreover, people are prone to give up at the first signs of defeat. There is no substitute for persistence."
There are too many opportunities at your door step.
Perhaps it won't happen overnight (in fact — the odds are it won't).
But as long as you can show up every day — the Universe will start to open up.
There are 6 different ways you can develop $1,000 inside hustle income (if you have the persistence and consistency to show up):
- Writing content on paying platforms
- Writing content for paying freelance clients
- Selling your own proprietary digital products
- Online coaching
- Podcasting
- Ecommerce and drop shipping
The most important thing you can do is start — again, you don't even have to have the full strategy mapped out.
That will change as you learn new things and discover new strategies.
But you need to start.