693 6:39

Art School Model Starts Sexually Stimulating Side Hustle

This biology student-turned model had a penchant for writing about sexual wellness. She just had to find a way to make money with it—and she did.

6:39

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What It's About

Let's talk about... one blogger takes her passion to the next level.

Business Model
Blogging and Affiliate
Skills Required
Blogging & Marketing
Complexity
Low
Profit Potential
Medium

Words of Wisdom

Cy says it's important to come up with an elevator pitch for why you're blogging, what your blog will be, and how it will help people. Anybody can get started blogging, but in a broad niche, it helps to be crystal-clear about what will make you stand out.

Fun Fact

Cy’s blog has won some accolades over the years, and was recently named one of Kinkly’s top 10 LGBTQ blogs.

Notes from Chris

Episode 693
Sexual positivity is a crucial part of who Cy is.

She started her first ever sex blog while still in high school; a Tumblr page called Smash Cache where she could reblog all of the erotic content she was reading.

The more she read, the more she felt compelled to tell her story and leave the curated content behind. So, in 2016, alongside studying for her biology degree, Cy evolved her blog into Super Smash Cache and created a free WordPress-hosted website.

This would be a fresh canvas where she could review sex toys, share a body positive message, and discuss taboo subjects which would probably get her banned from Facebook.

Cy posted a lot of content on the blog, but the content she was the most passionate about was sex toy reviews. She loved getting her hands on a new product, testing it, and publishing her findings. It was the perfect synergy of the scientific and person parts of her life.

Problem was, Cy didn’t have a lot of business connections and was reviewing only items she’d bought herself. So in late 2016, Cy decided to put the blog on pause. She’d found work as a life model for art classes—which she still does to this day—bringing in a more immediate income and freeing up time to focus on her studies.

Cy’s first foray into the business side of blogging was to network with other sex bloggers. She’d contact them, make friends, and find out who was offering them sample toys to review. Cy would then reach out to those companies, review their toys, and add an affiliate link in the post to generate income.

Cy found two profitable income streams for Super Smash Cache.

The first was to rent advertising space on the blog to sex toy manufacturers. This allowed her to control the cost of the space, and offer on-brand products, which wasn’t available with advertising programs like Google Adsense.

The second was to offer sponsored posts. These are blog posts which have been paid for by a third-party company to advertise products or brand ideas. For example, a couple’s sex toy shop paid for Cy to write a post about a sexy couple’s night, which included their brand message and a link back to their store in the post. These type of posts take a lot of work, but also the most profitable.

This mixture of income streams has lead to around $600 a month in earning from the newly revised Super Smash Cache.

Cy would like to transition out of modeling and explore more of her creative and artistic passions. She’d like to grow the blog while she explores other options.

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
  • Super Smash Cache: Learn more about Cy and her award winning blog (adult content)
  • Wordpress.com: The platform Cy used to create her blog. Note that Wordpress.com is similar but different than Wordpress.org
 

SEE ALSO: Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter
Quote of the Day
"If your ONLY incentive for blogging is to make money and you're not having fun with the process, you'll probably lose motivation before the money-making happens."
—Cy #SideHustleSchool

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