5 side hustles to leave your job and go web3 full time

I’ve recently left my job at Binance after a 10-month stint. I felt I was stagnating, and I wanted to keep growing. I’ve now embarked on a ghostwriting and web3 consulting career.

This got my gears turning. Considering the vast changes in the web3 landscape in the last two years since I started full-time, how would I start afresh if I were to leave a traditional web2 job today?

Therefore, I've compiled a list of five lucrative side gigs that could pave the way for you to focus solely on web3.

These skills aren't exclusive to web3, giving you a potential client base of thousands, but they will significantly enhance your content game in the web3 world.

1. Video editor focused on short format content.

According to Oberlo, 92% of all internet users watch videos weekly. That’s a few billion people; the fastest-growing format is short-form content.

As you know, the attention span is getting shorter every year, and that’s why platforms like TikTok, Instagram stories and YouTube shorts are proliferating.

And that’s where the opportunity lies.

Most YouTubers struggle to create short-form content effectively. They don’t have the time. And there is also an opportunity in web3. Let’s break down how to leverage your skill.

Web2 opportunity

• Find a YouTube channel that posts regular long-form content but doesn’t post many short-form pieces. The ideal channel should have between 20k and 75k subscribers.

• Create five short-form videos and reach out to the channel

• Rinse and repeat for 5-10 channels

Someone will eventually find your work suitable and will reward you for it.

Web3 opportunity:

• Reach out to big web3 newsletters and create a free 60s recap of a few publications.

• Wait for feedback; if positive, engage in negotiation and drop a package for X videos produced.

2. Faceless YouTube videos

Not all of us are comfortable on camera, and that’s fine. Faceless YouTube channels have been booming, especially in the new era of AI.

The concept is pretty simple.

• Find a niche

• Create a script

• Get a voice-over actor or AI voice over

• Edit the video.

I will say that going all in with AI only is not optimal just yet. I’d recommend either using contractors for editing and voice-over or doing it yourself. The human touch is still superior at present.

Here’s a very honest breakdown of a guy who tried it for 100 days. He spent a fair chunk of money on it but outsourced all the labour work, which you could do until monetisation becomes sustainable.

3. UGC videos for brands

In my web2 life, I was a paid media advertiser. I have run ads on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram for brands, spending over $20 million over the last four years on the advertising budget. I know that UGC or User Generated Content usually outperforms traditional well-polished videos.

The reason? Authenticity. People relate to people; it’s that simple. But that’s not even the best part. Those videos are cheap to produce for brands, they reach out to creators with a brief and product, and the creator does the rest.

And for you, it’s also great; you don’t need to post the video anywhere; you create content, send it, and get paid.

I remember working with a client looking to promote a product only available in London, so we were looking for British creators specifically, and let me tell you, it was no easy task. We only found 7-10 creators that matched our requirements. We ended up paying them $150-200 per video, and we worked with a few of them long-term, giving them 5-10 bookings for some. That’s already about $1,000 in the creator’s pocket with the repeat orders.

So how to get those opportunities?

• Go to Fiverr and create a profile.

• Create a few review videos from products you own. Skincare, make-up, anything can be used.

• You can also reach out to brands already using UGC and show them your work to increase your chances.

4. Freelance ghostwriting

Most brands struggle to create a great online presence. If you are a good writer, this is an excellent opportunity to add value and create your own business.

It’s not easy, but it can scale well once the ball rolls. But the main question is how even to get started with it.

My best advice is to brand yourself as a ghostwriter and produce excellent content with high output and consistency.

In May, I posted eight threads, generated over 1.2 million impressions on Twitter, and received four enquiries via DM. 2 are turning into paid work this month.

The second thing is to cold reach. For example, I contacted a web3 business today and got a positive response. We now have a call for next week.

To receive positive responses, I must insist again that your profile is your bio, especially in web3, must be immaculate. You don’t need 20k followers but must have some POF (Proof of Work).

5. Online Courses

If you have some knowledge about a specific field, you might want to consider creating online courses.

The infopreneur world can be highly profitable if done well. And there’s virtually unlimited demand across all industries.

Facebook ads, graphic design, music composition, video editing, you name it, there are probably 5,000 courses about it.

A great place to get started if you don’t have a personal brand is Udemy. You can upload your course on the #1 platform for free. It’s a bit like the Amazon of online classes/

The best thing about courses is that there’s no limit to how far it can scale up, meaning you create it once and can sell it forever and in unlimited quantity. It’s effectively total profit as you scale up.

What’s also interesting is that you don’t need to take an expensive course to generate good revenue. These three courses below are under $20, but with 60,000 purchased for the smallest one, it’s still $1,200,000 generated.

Let that sink in.

That’s all for today. I hope you enjoyed the read, and if you have any feedback, I’d love to hear it.

Respond to this email or DM me on my Twitter account.

Kelano