Turn your skills into a thriving online business generating $8K/month.
In this episode of “I Try To,” we’re testing a side hustle that claims you can make $285 per hour by following a few simple steps. Is this side hustle legit, or just another hype? I’ll break it down for you step-by-step, including my actual results after trying it for three days.
Overview of the $285/Hour Side Hustle
The original content creator claims that you can make $285 per hour by combining a few tools and leveraging affiliate marketing. The process consists of eight steps:
- Find Small YouTube Channels: Look for YouTube channels with fewer than 5,000 subscribers. These channels are actively trying to grow, making them prime targets.
- Collect Emails: Go to the YouTube channel’s “About” section and collect email addresses. Many YouTubers provide their email addresses to facilitate collaboration.
- Generate Blog Content Using ChatGPT: Use ChatGPT to help you write a blog post.
- Publish Blog Post on Medium: Post the article on Medium, a popular blogging platform that is free to use.
- Send Emails to YouTube Creators: Reach out to the YouTubers whose emails you collected, and share the link to your blog post.
- Drive Traffic to Your Blog: The idea is that the YouTubers will find your content helpful and will click the links in the blog post.
- Use Affiliate Marketing: The blog post contains affiliate links, specifically promoting VidIQ, a tool that helps creators grow their YouTube channels.
- Earn Commissions: The goal is to earn affiliate commissions when people click on the links in your blog post and sign up for VidIQ, especially if they eventually upgrade to the paid version.
Reasons Why This Side Hustle Might Not Work
While the content creator seemed optimistic, there are several reasons why I believe this approach might not be effective for everyone:
1. Spray and Pray Method
This strategy relies on what I call the “spray and pray” method. You send out emails and hope that people click through and convert. In affiliate marketing, it’s more effective to attract people to you by solving their problems rather than sending unsolicited messages. The spray-and-pray approach often feels like begging, and that’s not a strong foundation for building a sustainable income.
2. Sending Unsolicited Emails
Collecting emails from YouTube and sending unsolicited messages could be a violation of the CAN-SPAM Act, which is designed to protect people from unwanted emails. If you’re not careful, your email account could be flagged or even shut down for spamming.
3. Relying on AI Without Proper Prompts
The original video suggested using ChatGPT to create blog content, but it did not provide specific prompts for getting high-quality output. To succeed with AI tools, you need to give detailed instructions. Otherwise, you end up with surface-level content that doesn’t stand out from what’s already on the web.
4. Generic Blog Content
The blog content produced by ChatGPT tends to be very generic unless you guide it properly. In a highly competitive space like YouTube growth tools, generic content won’t stand out and won’t compel people to click on your affiliate links.
5. Dilution of Content
With over 44,000 people watching the original video, there’s a good chance many of them will follow the exact same method. This leads to an influx of almost identical blog posts on Medium, which dilutes the quality of the content and makes it harder for anyone to stand out.
6. Multiple Steps Reduce Conversions
The process involves multiple steps for the potential customer: they have to see your email, open it, read the blog post, click on the affiliate link, and then decide to sign up for VidIQ. Each step you add decreases the likelihood of conversion, resulting in very low success rates.
7. YouTube’s Limitations
YouTube limits you to scraping only ten email addresses per day, making it time-consuming to gather enough contacts. Plus, this practice could risk getting your account flagged by YouTube.
My Results After Three Days
After following this method for three days, here are my results:
- Medium Blog Post Views: Zero views and zero reads on my Medium blog post.
- Affiliate Sign-Ups: Zero sign-ups and zero clicks on my VidIQ affiliate link.
I used a different affiliate link to track these stats, and the results were clear: I did not make any money from this method.
A Better Way to Use Affiliate Marketing
Instead of using the spray and pray method, I recommend creating content that attracts people to you. Here are a few ideas:
1. Create YouTube Content That Solves Problems
Instead of scraping emails, create valuable content on YouTube that helps people solve a problem. For example, you could create videos around keywords like “How to Get More Views on YouTube” or “How to Beat the YouTube Algorithm.” These types of videos attract people who are already interested in growing their channels, making them more likely to click on your affiliate links.
2. Use Specific Keywords
Niche down and use specific keywords to target a smaller but more engaged audience. For example, instead of a broad topic like “How to Get More Views,” you could create content on “How to Get More Views for a YouTube Gaming Channel.” This approach makes it easier to rank and attract a targeted audience.
3. Show Results
People are more likely to follow your advice if you show them results. You could do a 30-day challenge and document your progress, showing how you grew your YouTube channel and how tools like VidIQ helped. This approach builds credibility and makes people more likely to click your affiliate links.
Final Thoughts
This side hustle may work for some, but it’s likely to yield minimal results due to its reliance on unsolicited outreach and a generic approach to content creation. Instead, focus on creating content that provides real value and attracts your target audience. Building trust with your audience is key to succeeding in affiliate marketing.
If you want to learn more about how to get started with an online business and attract customers rather than chasing them, check out my other content where I reveal step-by-step strategies that work.