Not just create, but build your community
Over the past year and a half or so, I've been cleansing myself of low-value side hustle activities.
“Get Paid To” or GPT sites were the big culprits. Do 8-minute surveys for $0.14, watch 10 videos with ads in between for $0.02, that kind of thing. Most of those are gone.
This week I stopped a tough one for me: online poker. A fresh hand every 49 seconds is a lot of addictive stimulation, even as a winning player.
I cashed out my accounts to nothing and don't plan to re-up on them.
I have other quick-hit dopamine fixes that I still gravitate to a bit, but those are different matters.
In any case, I want to share with you something I'm finding may be an activity that scratches all of the itches to replace some of those lower-value dopamine boosts — AND can further my creator journey in the process.
It's a good day if I can be helpful.
My nine-to-five at times can be pretty thankless. I'm convinced I'm not alone.
But the days that I can help someone get past a roadblock, or understand something that comes easily to me, are good days.
In other words, it's a good day if I help someone out.
I've had to watch that I don't set fire to myself to keep people warm, but barring that, I still enjoy helping people.
Back to the source of my dopamine hits.
To this end, there's no shortage of ways to help people out online.
It's what makes the Internet great — and what keeps people from losing all hope over it, honestly.
Offering insights and answering questions are satisfying ways to help people out. Clarify things for people, or meet their needs for answers.
So let's talk about Reddit.
Arguably there's no larger source than Reddit for people seeking help.
And, by and large, there's no larger source of people willing to help than Redditors.
This makes for a great opportunity in two ways.
First, there's a delightful and nearly endless variety of posts with people asking for help.
Second, if done with a servant's heart, it can be profitable.
I'll explain.
Getting rid of cheap dopamine sources and finding profitable replacements
So, so many subreddits. Over 130,000 active ones by some counts.
Dopamine Central.
It's no wonder that people can lose hours on Reddit and enjoy every moment of it.
It gives the same dopamine buzz due to the constant stream of fresh content.
Done properly, commenting on posts and answering questions is ultimately more satisfying than the fill-out-surveys side hustles.
But … can it be profitable?
The Reddit community is finely tuned to commercial intent and can smell a veiled pitch a mile away.
The answer is yes. And the means to that answer is the same:
Be helpful.
Make the interactions more “pay it forward” and less “pay me now.”
My friend landed a $1,500 coaching client from Reddit.
He did this by showing up to answer questions in subreddits related to his niche.
Someone contacted him in his DMs to pursue coaching from him.
He paid it forward, and someone ended up paying him now. It was practically magic.
This strategy isn't “I do this, and that happens.”
It's more “I do this expecting nothing in return, and it may come back to me in multiples of what I put into it.”
For my money, it's worth trying.
If you want to see me in action (as such), then you can follow me on Threads.
Oh heck, why not? Here's my Reddit handle too!
Photo by Maxim Berg on Unsplash