Debunking the Side Income Hype Posts — Are They Just Clickbait or Helpful?
Wait?! Is this clickbait about clickbait? Or helpful content?
I’m so annoyed with the hype posts.
They’re on every platform — Medium, YouTube, LinkedIn, X (fka Twitter) — and ruining content for all of us.
I love to learn, be inspired, and support other creators online — but I’m tired of being baited by an interesting title, into a cesspool of repetitive junk. It makes me cringe every time I read these articles.
You know the posts I’m talking about, the ones titled:
4 Best Side Hustles for 2023!
8 Easy Side Hustles for Beginners!
Make $5K a Month with This Side Hustle!
They get our content creator hearts racing.
“I can do this too!” we think to ourselves as we click on the article (video or podcast).
We grab our energy drink and notepad and settle in to learn. It’s time to get rich!
I want to believe it’s all hype but I don’t want to just rant — is there a benefit from them too? Are there helpful tips included (and repeated in perpetuity)?
Let’s take a look at some examples.
(I’m not calling out any writers or content creators. These examples are for demonstration purposes only — though I think they’re common enough that they’ll read like the 1000s of other similar articles we’re bombarded with daily.)
4 Best Side Hustles for 2023!
The list:
- Stock investing
- Crypto trading
- eBooks
- Freelancing
Hmmm. Lackluster at best.
The first two require already having money. But I’m here to make money. I don’t have it yet! Pass.
The 3rd one is interesting, but it’s just a generic idea. Should I use Kindle KDP, Gumroad, or my email subscriptions? Any topic? What if I don’t like to write? It reinforces something I’m interested in but doesn’t help me.
The 4th is a cope out. Yep, freelancing is a side hustle by some definitions, but it’s also just another job. No thank you, I’m going digital and hate the term freelancer.
Next article, please.
8 Easy Side Hustles for Beginners!
The list:
- Online surveys
- Selling digital products
- Selling blood or kidneys
- Washing garbage bins
- Painting houses
- Join Fiverr
- Investing
- YouTube channel
Blah, blah, blah. How many times do we need to read this generic, unimaginative list?
There’s nothing new on here — and most of these are surface-level ideas. A beginner is probably not going to read this, take one of the ideas, and jump into a side hustle — there’s no meat and advice to use.
I’m interested in digital products and a YouTube channel — but I was hoping for something less common and more creative.
Waste of time, skip!
Make $5K a Month with This Side Hustle!
The hustle:
- Create digital products for Etsy!
Nice! That’s all it takes to make $5K a month?! I’m in!
Wait. Is this author making $5K a month on Etsy? Or are they making a lot of assumptions based on data from other (anonymous) sellers? They’re not using “I” in the header — giveaway!
Could I (or anyone for that matter) just sit down, create an Etsy page, create some digital products, and start making $5K a month?
Or would this require a 40-hour-a-week commitment for 12 months? Probably.
Motivating, yes. I’m curious about the Etsy area for digital products. But I don’t think it’s easy — and I especially don’t think we should all expect to make $5K a month doing it.
Usually most frustrating to me when it’s not the author’s results or experience. They’re guessing about someone else’s process and downplaying all the work it takes to get to that expert level.
Helpful or Clickbait?
So, are these side hustle hype posts useful or just clickbait to draw our eyes and attention (then piss us off)?
At this point, you probably know where I’m leaning.
Yep — clickbait.
My recommendation is to remove it from your arsenal of content creation.
If you want to use it for audience building, make sure you go deeper into the “how to start” (not just the basic idea).
Or at least make the ideas unique and not the same boring ideas that ChatGPT spit out.
Agree? Disagree? I’m curious to hear your perspective.
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