This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, what's up? Welcome to a brand new week. This is Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. We are closing in on the final two weeks of 2018. I've got a great story to kick off the week and got another set of great stories coming to you every day.
But the first one today, let's talk about the blogging model of making money through a blog. The blogging model has evolved quite a bit over the years. And the story I'm gonna tell you today, it's all about a blog in the financial news industry that targets millennials. And these two guys that start the blog, they find their biggest success when switching from the public blog to a private daily newsletter that sells sponsored content. And when I say private, that doesn't mean inaccessible, like anybody can join this newsletter and read it.
But the point is you actually have to join the newsletter. You can't just go to a website and read it. This reminds me of another newsletter called The Skim, which has done something similar and has hundreds of thousands of daily subscribers. So what is key to making this kind of project work? And in this case, in both of these cases actually, they're doing very, very well, very successful.
I think there are three things. And I'll talk about it a bit more at the end of the episode, but those three things are a distinctive voice. So really clear writing style, really clear voice that over time, their readers kind of hook on to and engage with. Number two, a clear target market. Both of these newsletters really know exactly who they're trying to reach.
And finally, consistency. They've just been doing it a long time and putting in the work. Now I'm a big fan of a streak. That's why I do the show every day, 716 days and counting. However, the two guys in this story have had a daily streak since 2012.
I think they might take weekends off. I'm not sure. I should check that point because I don't. But still, big respect to them. So let's say a shout out to our sponsor, kind of a similar model here just on the podcast.
And then I'll tell you about this snack-sized business news for millennials. [Music]
A lot of business news just isn't appealing to younger readers. Bloomberg is having a hard time getting millennials to read its website. Fidelity Investments can't get them to understand all the financial lingo. And the Wall Street Journal can seem like an old-fashioned club that only the elite belong to.
Even as professionals in the world of finance, Nicholas Martel and his roommate, Jack Kramer, didn't enjoy reading up on the latest news, but they didn't have a choice. Keeping up with developments was important in their banking jobs. One day, the two met up at Old Town Bar in New York before walking back to the apartment. They talked stocks, economics, spreadsheets, the usual, but they also dreamed of a project. What if they created a business news media company that could be understood by millennials?
Nobody they knew had easily digestible market news. They thought they could create such a thing, so they did, and they called it Market Snacks. Their plan was to publish a blog with daily news stories that were relevant and understandable. All they needed was a simple website, so the monetary startup costs were almost non-existent. And in just a couple of weeks, Market Snacks came out of the pantry.
But even though the money costs were low, the hustle did cost a lot to start in time. Nick and Jack blocked off multiple hours before and after their day jobs to plan, write, edit, and publish content. It was an intensive project, and it required their focus every day. Thankfully, the work began to pay off. In just a few weeks, Market Snacks had a couple hundred daily readers.
The idea was being validated with each new visitor to the site who turned into a regular reader. For those first few weeks and then months were critical, Nick and Jack knew that if they didn't get their process right, they would burn out, and the hustle would fizzle into yet another dead website. So they created a few intelligent systems. I really like this first one. It's called the one and done editing process.
Each would write part of the article, and the other person would be the editor. When an edit was made, the original writer just had to go with it, no questions asked. So one person writes the other edits, and then it stops. It goes on the website with no back and forth, no arguments about grammar. This process not only helped the two of them remain best friends through it all, but it also gave them the efficiency they needed to write every day, especially when they were traveling or otherwise busy as part of their day jobs.
Another system they created was their content generation model. Every afternoon, they would round up the day's news and pitch ideas to each other. They wanted to make sure they had what they called the market snacks mix, which would be two must-know business stories, like Google testifying to Congress about privacy, and one to two interesting stories that were requested by readers, like how imports of avocados can affect prices at Chipotle. Hmm, a free shout out to Chipotle, which they would sponsor us, just a little wish list item there. These methods helped Nick and Jack stick to their goal of daily content without fail for months, but something was missing.
People loved the content, but they didn't love going to the website each day to find out the latest news. So they had to find a faster, easier way to reach their readers. And as soon as they realized this, the answer became obvious, an email newsletter. And they decided to go all in, not just adding an email newsletter, but making their whole focus the email newsletter. Doing this meant that the readers were more engaged and thus became better evangelists for the brand.
The newsletter blew up, with hundreds of new subscribers joining every day. They still weren't making money yet, but the press began to notice. They got a mention on fortune.com, in an interview on Fox Business, then Cheddar TV, live on the New York Stock Exchange. Nick and Jack aren't exactly sure why it started to happen when it did, but they do know why it happened. They were a brand with a mission.
They democratized business news and brought the complex world of finance to the masses, especially, once again, millennial readers. It wasn't just a business, it was a story. And it was time to maximize that story and also, perhaps, monetize it. After two years of building the brand and writing for free, Nick got the email he'd been waiting for. Fidelity Investments was curious about a partnership.
They wanted to feature Market Snacks content in their own app. Now, this was a dream come true. Fidelity was huge. And Nick and Jack believed in their brand, so they negotiated hard. They ended up getting the Market Snacks logo and website link also featured in the app, not to mention a sizable monthly income.
After the Fidelity deal, sponsor requests began to roll in. And this time, they knew what to do. Rather than place traditional ads in their emails, they would write compelling content in the Market Snacks voice that featured the partner brands, like Betterment, Robinhood, and LinkedIn. It was fun, engaging, and insightful content. Readers didn't complain about it.
And they didn't have to deal with those boring, obnoxious, rectangle ads. Market Snacks has continued to evolve. In 2017, they launched a podcast. In early 2018, they raised outside funding. And later in the year, they became full-time content creators.
With the sponsors they have, they're also making a lot of money. But according to Nick, the money's not the best part. Otherwise, he wouldn't have done it for so long without pay. The greatest rewards are the five-star podcast reviews and email testimonials that indicate Market Snacks is successful. What are they successful in?
They're successful in helping a generation understand business and finance news in a way that's never been done before. Hustling in a dream job full-time? Well, that's a nice perk too. [Music]
So again, those three elements that I mentioned at the top of the episode, why did this blog turn newsletters succeed? Why did it cultivate such a fanatical readership?
People in large numbers who loved it to the point where they could leverage it to get these lucrative sponsorships from financial companies. Well, first they had a distinctive voice. And you can kind of tell this if you look at the newsletter or even just look at their sales page or listen to one of their podcast episodes. It's just really clear, it's unique. They are clearly positioning themselves to reach a certain group of people, which is the next element, a clear target market.
Not trying to provide business news for everyone, really speaking to a group that they felt was misunderstood by mainstream, traditional business media. And then last but not least, consistency. Just doing it over and over. In their case, being willing to do it for free for a long time. If you can find something in life that you believe in so much that you're willing to do for free, but that ultimately in fact you can end up getting paid for, that's a pretty good situation.
And I'm pretty sure that that value, like their passion for delivering this content for maintaining their voice, for really putting forward their perspective, I think that comes through pretty clearly to their readers, which is why again, those readers are so fanatical in the first place. And last but not least, each of these things kind of changes over time, at least in terms of their expression. So I said consistency is important. Well, they have been consistent, but they've also changed like what they've done. They've changed the format.
They've added a podcast. The voice has evolved. They have better understood their target market. So it's not a static process. It's an evolutionary process of just getting better and better while doing something in their case every day.
So if you're not gonna do something every day, you should at least find a way to do it consistently because I really do believe that is a key for success in a lot of things, not just side hustles, but also life and habits and patterns and whatever you're trying to do for yourself. So with my vote for consistency, I will sign off now and wish you a wonderful day. As always, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. If you wanna see the show notes and read more about market snacks, maybe check them out for yourself, just go to sidehustleschool.com/716. That is episode 7 and 16.
We've got notes and links there. Also, if you're looking for a last minute Christmas gift, might I suggest the book "Side Hustle"? It's pretty good. I've read it a couple of times, actually. Subtitle is "From Idea to Income in 27 Days." You can get that from any online retailer or even better by supporting your local bookstore.
Thank you so much. I'll be back again tomorrow. This is Chris Guillebeau for "Side Hustle School." [Music]
