It's been a busy couple of weeks where nothing has happened.
Funnily enough I am not busy with work or study or being social. I've been busy turning my passion into a lifestyle.
I realized that if I can put all these effort into maintaining a Hive account over the last 7 years, I can double that effort and expand upon the work I've already done.
The nice thing about having done all that work is that now I have 7 years of articles to draw from.
And so after one month on Substack, I have 55 Subscribers and about the same amount of Followers (the only difference is that Followers see you in their feed but aren't notified when you upload a new article.
It seems the crowd there is a bit different. They are younger but also much more "left leaning" than Hive, although on both platforms I manage to find people who are not as indoctrinated with a single philosophy or way of life. As many people who follow me know I do not like the political dichotomy that we are shoved into and try to dismantle this divisive way of thinking wherever I can.
So I share the same work there and the response is very different but equally positive.
It feels nice to have people paying attention on both platforms. To have 10-25 readers on a post on one platform is one thing, but then to share the same on 3 platforms (including Instagram), and get the same amount of readers...we are nearing 100 readers now....
I get over 10 comments on almost everything I share now, and lots of engagement on short thoughts I share at Leo threads and substack (almost ready to quit X entirely).
My phone feels like its blowing up for a few hours a day. I finally feel like I know what it's like to be successful. The money isn't flowing in to a degree that I can make a living this way...not yet, but it feels like the foundation is being built now.
I was originally planning to use subscriptions at INLEO and Substack both as a place for donations, without putting anything behind a paywall. But as I started thinking about what I might put behind a paywall, I realized, there is a lot I don't share because it's searchable by google and other search engines. Without that to worry about, there is more I could share...and so I'm thinking about sharing 2-4 articles a month behind the paywall.
Then that got me thinking about the paywall at substack, and how there is more than one genre of things I could talk about more freely if it's encrypted and not going out to the web crawlers.
I am thinking about sharing more in the realm of personal stories from my travels as well as language learning hacks and tips on how to adapt to a foreign culture over at Leo for subscribers. I will still share most important things with everyone on Hive and Substack, just going to get a little more detailed in private stuff for people who like me enough to subscribe.
I don't think Hive is as interested in the self-exploration and shadow work stuff as Substack, there is a large community for that kind of stuff over there and I've already connected with them, so I'm considering doing the same kind of paywall over there but with more of a focus on shadow work, fiction and personal development.
I have no idea if either of these will attract people willing to pay money when the economy is such a mess and people are struggling...but I know I am worth those $5-8 to anyone who can afford it, and who knows...maybe there are people who think I'm worth way more than that.
The way I see it, if I can attract even just 5 people who want to pay at each platform...that's $65 ($5 for Leo and $8 for Substack) a month. Not much, but over the course of a year that's $780. That's that trip I haven't been able to afford the past few years. It also gives me a chance to get my music and fiction out there a little more.
Meanwhile, I realize that since people at Substack aren't used to upvoting for $, they are more willing to pay for things, and some of them are looking for guidance, guidance that I can provide. Some want to become independent from their parents or get out of their cultural bubble or become better at making conversation.
If I can find a few clients to coach every year or people who want to study Japanese, Mandarin or English, I don't need to worry about promoting my language classes anymore. And promoting my classes has been the LEAST FUN part of being a freelancer....it drains me far more than the work itself.
If my writing can become promotion for my other work, I'm killing two birds with one stone, because I love writing and connecting with people.
So slowly, slowly, I am building up the multiple income streams I need to make a living out of my passions.
If I can earn $250 a month on Hive upvotes and curation, $250 from subscriptions here and $250 there, then earn another $250 from new clients, I literally have nothing to worry about with regards to work and money. That would cover all the money I'm losing when students quit due to losing their jobs or going abroad.
Add to that the $20+ I can earn per referral to Hive on Leo and more book sales. I can use that to invest back into the community.
From there I hope to get back to playing music, something that doesn't earn much money but really drives the network effect and can help to eventually double or triple the amount earned from each of these things.
The goal is not to have to think about how to earn money, to just do the things I love and connect with people and have money flowing in my direction. Right now I'm just building the system in order for that to become possible....and it seems to be coming along quite nicely!!!
All of this has made me very very busy, but I don't feel tired or stressed. It's work, but it's fun work! I really can't wait to introduce a few new friends from Substack to my friends at Hive and vice versa.
If anyone is interested in hearing about Culture shock, hitchhiking journeys, conversations with homeless people and language hacks, let me know and I will send you a link to my subscription page once it's up. INLEO's subscription services should launch in the next 24-48 hours!
And if you are interested in growing on another platform and helping me bring some people back to hive, let me know!
I+Everything
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
I have a similar plan at the moment. It's not a bad idea to put some time into many different things and distribute some income a bit. I've got my photography/videography stuff slowly picking up after weeks of really going at it. Even if I get a dollar in sales a week, I see it slowly picking up and realise how useful it is to have something else adding to income that's also somewhat passive once uploaded.
Then focus can go elsewhere to build something else, little bits of money coming in without having to entirely rely on one specific income to survive. I'm sure you can do it.
I feel like hive has kind of peaked for me in regards to audience size and rewards. I know I could push but there are only a few people who make a significant amount more than me here and they have support from whales who don’t like me 🤣 I think hive will be more fun in a few months. I don’t wanna turn it into work.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to find subscribers but we will see! I would subscribe to me!
Yeeeeeeep! I know exactly what you mean. I had this epiphany recently too. I had Hive as work put into me for far too long when my community had support, and once that stopped I realised how negative it was for me to have been putting in so much time into Hive, so much pointless exclusivity. It was only recently that I started to branch out and put that time elsewhere and I'm already starting to see some of that paying off.
Hive can still be fun, just when the time and effort you put in is actually fun too. The moment that stops, the moment it's best to just go and do something other.
I love hive still! But I’m done spending 100% of my time here it’s my base but I like to spend lots of time away from home
Give Blurt.blog a try… I can give you some $$$$ upvotes over there. And there are no downvotes. Blurt is going to eventually jump to $1 …. Some Big YouTubers coming soon. Lots of great musicians. See you there .
https://Blurt.blog
Get a Free Blurt blog via Discord : https://discord.gg/7jwDPs4G
Found my old account. Could leave a comment but couldn’t post. Had 400 blurt I just powered up
I will send you some.
@whatamidoing
Sent you 100 Blurt ... Post anything, no downvotes ever. Tip : Share your postson X/Twitter with hashtag #web3 #blurt #blog #crypto and get huge Whale Upvotes on those posts.
Phew! The same kind of thoughts I've been having, about how to earn more from writing recently. I have a book that was published in 2022, and that actually led me to getting some Content Moderation job.
But I lost that job last month and I've decided the way forward is writing. I'm leaning more towards writing gigs than posts on platforms like you've talked about here. But it still sounds nice to me, good luck with these. You should also look at writing gigs 🌚
Cool that you were able to make a living from it. I’m sure you will again, what kind of writing gigs are you looking at?
Freelance stuff. Writing for magazines, blogs that pay writers, and I'm also looking at webnovel book deals.
I'm also gearing towards that myself too, becoming full time blogger on hive ..just to settle in, we kinda align with the writing passion n to connect with others
I wish hive was enough to survive in Japan. It’s why I keep hoping the yen drops 🤣
No worries, the yen is dropping already ;^)
yes!! It’s brilliant! Just wait for btc 200k plz yen! ❤️
just make sure to buy some more sats with your Hive first ;^)
yah..i gerrit same thing here tho on the opposite, since its the dollar against our naira, how ever we've got to diversify..its the smart thing to do
I am a full time writer here on Hive for 7 years now. You can make a very good living with a few blogs. One to experiment with and the others to write. ✍️ …. if you have 10 blogs each earning $100 a day … that’s $1,000 a day … $365,000 a year. Not bad retirement income.
All of hive are belong to you
🤣
Not really. I’m mostly on Ecency these days. But share on a lot of other front ends with hashtags …. #pob #cent #waivio #aliveandthriving #sportstalk #bpc #meme #vyb #lassecash …
🤯 so basically I probably talk to you on multiple accounts 😝
Probably not, since I never post on Leo. Only Ecency and Hive.
lol wait you don’t make 100 a day on each blog
Getting there. But each blog is very different.
The trick to sharing your music here on Hive … and everywhere …. Is to create YouTube Shorts… share the YouTube Short url links here and you will reach 1,000 Subscribers plus view time in a few weeks. Monetize your YouTube Channel and you earn money forever. Not just 7 days. It’s Infinite passive income. Just create a few Hive blogs and YouTube Channels to experiment in case someone decides to downvote your good work. You can also share on Steemit and Blurt for more $$$$ …
I have tried that. Got a few dozen subscribers overs a few months and some views but the viewers are random and not into the same things so it messes with the algorithms and sends my stuff to the wrong people
Yeah. That’s why you need a few different blogs/channels to experiment with.
What kind of videos did you share? You shared them on dbuzz and Leo threads?
No… I just share them here on Hive and Ecency. I earn the most from Ecency.com
My videos are very random. Mostly short travel clips from our various road trips here in Canada.
My Offgrid TV YouTube Channel : https://Youtube.com/c/OffgridTV