New Page & Side Hustle

Nowadays, a lot of people have “side hustles”, ways to make money alongside their regular job. These used to be called “second jobs”, but that was before the gig economy. And for a lot of bloggers, their blog is their side hustle, at least until they can grow it to the point of it being their primary job.

That is not me. I thought, way back in the day when I was managing four active blogs, that it might be. But then I realized that blogging was an enjoyable hobby for me, and trying to turn it into a money making device kind of sucked the fun out of it. I also got a regular job that I love (and that pays really good money).

Once I decided my blog was not going to be a hustle of any sort, I stopped worrying about having a side hustle or second job. But recently, I came across OnlineBookClub.org. This is a site that gives me access to free books, if I agree to review the books I read. I have a lot of reading time (generally 2.5 hours/day on my commute), and am pretty constantly searching for new things to read. And I already write book reviews. This blog is full of them. And the added bonus is that a lot of the time, the authors/publishers of the books I read will pay me for the review. Not a lot, $5 or $10, along those lines, at least at the start.

My goal with the side hustle is not to make a lot of money. In fact, at least to start, my goal is to make about $15/month – basically enough to pay for my Audible subscription. If it goes really well, maybe I will make enough to decide to get a Kindle Unlimited subscription, as well. Super big goals, I know. But if reading can pay for my reading, then that works for me.

Now, Online Book Club does ask that the reviews I post for them are on their site only. I cannot write the review, publish it for them, and then publish it here as well. And that makes sense. They make the money they need to run by having this unique content for authors and publishers. I have no problem with that. But they also make money (and by extension, give me the option of making more money) the more people read and interact with the reviews (you know, comment in a way that shows you actually read the review). Because of this, they are very happy for me to “advertise” my reviews. So I have started a new page on this blog called OnlineBookClub.org Book Reviews. You can go there to find the links to the reviews I have written.

When a new review of mine gets published, I will add it to that page, as well as send out a link via this site’s Facebook and Twitter feeds. I am not super active on Twitter, but I used to be, and I am trying to get better.

Let me be very clear that I do profit off of you going to the reviews and commenting on them. The more popular my reviews are, the higher reviewer score I have at Online Book Club. And the higher reviewer score I have, the more books I have the option to review, and the higher the payouts for those reviews are. So if you want to help me reach my goal of paying for my Audible subscription and my stretch goal of adding a Kindle Unlimited subscription, please read and comment. (Thought: What if I were to make enough from reviewing the books that not only could I have the two subscriptions, but that I would have enough to buy new books from Stephenson, Gibson, Brust, and other favorites when they came out? Completely supporting my reading habit by reading. That would would be living the dream.)

So that is it. There is a new page for the blog. I have a new side hustle. And I love to talk about books, so please, feel free to engage with the reviews at Online Book Club, the reviews here, or on Facebook and Twitter.