This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, hey, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. This is your host, Chris Guillebeau. Welcome as well to a brand new month. This episode is 1643, going out on the first day of July, 2021.
Though of course you could be listening to it later, but whatever day it is there, whatever part of the world you're in, I hope that you're having a wonderful day. I hope that you're thinking as well about what you can do for yourself. How can you do something to create some personal freedom for yourself through the form of a money-making project? Which is of course our mission with the podcast. Now, also I just wanna give you a heads up at the beginning of this episode.
This episode contains content that you might not want to listen to with young children. Okay, there's nothing wrong with what you're gonna hear. It's all about sexual wellness. So it's a very relevant topic, but it's a relevant topic mostly for adults. Okay, so you have been warned.
This is also our throwback Thursday segment, where we take an in-depth look at someone whose story has evolved since we first featured them. Now, last week we heard from the co-inventor of a device that allows public restroom users to open the door with their foot. So simple, so important. Their business actually increased 70 times, 70x, at the start of the global pandemic, when everybody was like, hey, you know, maybe it's actually not a good idea to open the restroom door with their hands after we've just used the restroom and then washed our hands. Like, what's the whole point here?
So that was last week. Today, in our latest feature, we will hear from a sex-positive blogger who publishes a long-running site that reviews toys and other, as mentioned, adult products. Okay, what has happened since? Let's hear directly from her. She has a really interesting series of updates, including some advice, as well as a personal testimonial of how she's making a difference in the lives of her readers and followers.
All good things, of course. So her name is Sai, let's hear from her, and I'll come back at the end to wrap us up. [Music]
Hi, I'm Sai from Detroit, Michigan. I run the sex-to-review blog Super Smash Cash, which was featured on Side Hustle School episode 693, titled Art School Model Starts Sexually Stimulating Side Hustle. Sex blogging and sex education landscapes have changed a lot since I was featured.
So just as a heads up, what worked for me in 2018 or 2019 won't 100% work for new sex-to-reviewers now. So take Instagram, for example. I'm currently at about 13,400 followers on Instagram, which is great for sharing direct links to my stories. However, nowadays, there are greater concerns about censorship and shadow banning for spicy content creators. So hashtags like #sexpositive aren't as effective for expanding reach as they used to be.
So in mid-2020, when Instagram introduced their Reels feature in an attempt to compete with TikTok's short video format, I hopped on a trend as fast as I could. And it paid off because Instagram's algorithm especially prioritized Reels at the time and showed them to a broader audience. More than one of my Reels have gone viral, which has been a huge factor in my social media growth. I used to publish three blog posts a week, but have toned it down to once or twice a week to give myself more time for my personal goals. Finally, I make more money than I used to for my blog.
It goes up and down, but I can expect to make over $2,000 every month and most of that comes passively via traffic from search engines. Between that and social distancing, I stopped modeling for art classes and I'm slowly working from home. My current challenge is finding a way to scale up that works for me. There's only so much I can do as a sole proprietor without burning myself out. So for example, I can only write to my post per week.
Possibly some of the next steps could include teaching an online course or hiring staff. Talking about sexuality had always been a big deal to me. So before I was a sex review blogger, I had already been posting sex positive and educational content on my personal social media, but I also wanted to have full ownership of my content rather than losing my posts in the abyss of social media or again, potentially being censored. So I also wanted to monetize my work for myself and not mostly for say Zuckerberg and Facebook ads. So I took it to a self-hosted platform using WordPress.org software.
And I essentially cold emailed sex toy shops that I knew had affiliate or review programs. From there, I got to know what made each one unique and forged relationships. I'm gonna start with like some more general advice. So that would be to listen to your gut. So what's a full-bodied emphatic yes to you?
And what are your boundaries for things that are more of like, hmm, okay, I guess. 'Cause in the beginning, you might make some compromises for the sake of just putting content out there. However, as your blog gets more popular, you'll get a lot more emails and social media DMs with air quote opportunities that you would benefit from either saying no to or charging higher prices. So Chris's response to my original side hustle school story was spot on. If you charge low prices, you might get more clients, sure.
But many of them are less invested than the higher paying ones. So you're doing more work for people who care less about what you have to offer. And that's a great recipe for resentment. A rule of thumb a friend told me was, if you're not getting a no at least half the time, your prices aren't high enough. And consider adding 25% on top of that because you'll still have to pay income taxes after a certain point.
So whatever happens next, I'm proud to be seen as a sex education superhero. And some business wins are hard to quantify. I have to remind myself that my mission isn't, air quote, just about the toys. 'Cause pleasure is an essential part of people's relationships with their bodies and their partners. So for example, one story I love to bring up is there was this one lady who was in her fifties and she had only ever had two orgasms in her entire life before finding my blog.
And then once she had read my content, she was having orgasms like consistently and very often. And another thing is one of my old friends had told me that reading my content and getting to know my message actually helped prepare him for a long-term relationship with a partner. And knowing that toys are there to be enjoyed and they're not a replacement for human contact, they're just a tool for his partners. And they only add to that sensation. [Music]
Well, you heard it from her.
Thank you so much, Cy, really appreciate those updates. By the way, I wanted to pass along one as well that she mentioned in our conversation. If you heard the original episode with her, which was, what was it again? Episode 693, I believe. In that episode, we mentioned something about her choosing to be anonymous and how she didn't want to release any photos of herself.
And I think partly that's because she's writing about this adult topic and some people can be really creepy. But also she mentioned in our recent conversation, which we have permission to share, she said the other reason was because she is Asian American and felt like if she disclosed that, she would be kind of running up against some stereotypes. And the update is recently she's come to kind of reevaluate that and actually it's her desire to now shatter some of those stereotypes. I think she writes about that a bit on her blog as well. So I encourage you to check it out.
Again, adults only, but it's supersmashcash.com. That's cash with a C-A-C-H-E dot com or follow her on Instagram at the same name, supersmashcash. Okay, this was one of our most popular features of 2020. So as you've heard, we're gonna keep it going this year as well. Let me know what you think and who you'd like to see featured from our archives of more than 1,000 stories.
Thank you for joining me today. If you have a question of your own or an update, sidehustleschool.com/questions. That's all for today, but I hope you'll come back tomorrow. We got so much more coming up this summer and beyond. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
