Are you looking for a second source of income? Maybe you wanna start a side-hustle that doesn't suck the life out of you?

About this time last year - around October 2020 - I decided to start a newsletter.

The reason was very selfish. It was not to give value to my subscribers. I simply want to have something where I can go to escape my 9 to 5. I read too many things and I go down weird rabbit holes. I know my boyfriend isn't interested in browsing those links. So, I started a newsletter to find people who are willing to read what I share.

I did some research before I actually came up with a name for my newsletter: The Curious Bunch. Every single one of those suggestions included "FIND A NICHE". Well, I couldn't be more frustrated. I'm a generalist and it's really hard for me to find a niche. I cannot stick with something for so long without experiencing it in the first place. Believe me, you don't need a niche to start a newsletter right away. But, that's a topic for another day.

So, yeah, that was my goal with the newsletter when I started. But eventually, I found more joy in curating links that are useful not only to myself but also to others. You know, giving back and all.

I never intended to monetize it. Heck, I didn't even know people monetize their newsletters. 😱

Last week I was updating my personal Revenue page on Notion and noticed some interesting stats:

• I earned around $1400 dollars through my newsletter.
• That's ~₹1,05,000 in Indian Rupees.
• For less than 7 hours per week of effort on average.
• That's ~1 hour per day.

Most of the time, I don't even feel like I spent 7 hours since it feels more like play than work. Isn't this the dream!?