Here’s how much I’ve earned from my side hustle over the past 2 years:
Is it a lot? Definitely not. Especially if I take into account all the circumstances:
I have a full-time job
I am the father of a 3-year-old son
That makes my time very limited
To run my business after hours, I sacrifice time for lunch, evenings and Netflix series.
On average I spend 1–2 hours a day on my side hustle.
With that in mind, I’m not satisfied with the money I make online. I could spend my free time in many different ways.
But I know this is just the beginning. I’m playing the long game here.
And this is the hardest part for creators. These long months, sometimes years of very minimal growth.
Being able to keep doing things without seeing the results is the most difficult part.
I wanted to quit so many times
There’s a lot of frustration in business. I can work on one idea for many hours. But then nothing comes out of it.
I feel disappointed.
But that’s actually the rules of the game.
I try new things, see what works, get feedback, learn and improve.
That’s how it works.
But there are times when I really want to give up
Little earnings from my product
No one is reading my latest content
The number of followers is dropping
People are unsubscribing from my newsletter
But then I recall some of my favorite stories from the creators. This helps me a lot.
I write down their journeys to read them when I have worse moments.
So if you sometimes feel the same way, here’s what can help you:
It’s the hardest and the slowest in the beginning
Jay Clouse is the founder of Creator Science. One of the best things about his work is that he always shares all the details of his success.
Joe gained 200 subscribers in the first year of his newsletter.
Now (after 7 years) he is getting 200 new subscribers every week.
And here is Creator Science’s historical profit and loss statement.
In 2024, it earned a net income of $300,000.
BUT, he also highlights a two important truths:
He’s been doing this for eight years
It took him 4 years to have his first 6-figure year
“Along this eight-year journey, most of my peers have quit. A lot of them were talented and even found success! But this path is hard — and if I would’ve quit in years 1–5, you can see what I would’ve missed out on.”
You can read full report here: https://creatorscience.com/year-in-review-2024/
Prepare for a long journey
One of my favorite creators on YouTube is Stephen Robles.
Stephen is 38 years old, he has a family with 3 kids and a full-time job. Aside from that he makes amazing YouTube videos about Apple products.
Now his channel has 100,000 YouTube subscribers. But it wasn’t an easy ride.
Look at Stephens’ subscriber line. For the first two years, nothing really happened there. Two years with consistent work without seeing the results.
But eventually his work paid off.
The power of slow growth
Mary Marantz is a best-selling author and entrepreneur, and she talks about the myth of overnight success
Her journey was a process that took a long time and proves that you can be successful with slow growth, too.
It’s easy to look at other people’s journeys and assume that their success came quickly and easily to them. Then, when you look back at your own journey, it feels like success is taking much longer than it should.
and:
When you slow down and focus on your craft, the work will work on you. You have to commit to being a lifelong student of your craft instead of spending your time chasing success.
You can read more about it here.
Be consistent
Most people can’t do one thing over and over again. They can’t be consistent in the log run.
But this is the key — showing up for your audience every day.
When I started my newsletter in I had just 30 subscribers.
Now, 13 months later I have 470 amazing subscribers.
Do good work and your content will eventually get noticed:
Be consistent
See what works
Learn and improve.
Final thoughts
If you are at the beginning of your journey, remember that you have plenty of time.
Enjoy it
Experiment a lot
Don’t be afraid of failure.
That way you will learn what really works.
Here is the strategy in a nutshell:
Write/create frequently
See what works
Do more of what works
Do less of what doesn’t
Create free products from your best content
Get feedback and learn
Make it better
Sell it.
Looking for something else to read?
Thanks for reading!
-Robin
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